Blizzard Dumps Nearly 2 Feet of Snow on Some Parts of Manhattan
The blizzard, which began on Feb. 22, dumped more than 15 inches of snow in Manhattan by midday on Feb. 23. Washington Heights, in northern Manhattan, recorded 22.1 inches.
| 23 Feb 2026 | 05:15
Heather Stein during blizzard on The Literary Walk in Central Park, evening of Sunday, Feb. 23. (
)
Someone built a snow man on E. 87th St. and York Ave. (
)
Leto frolics on Feb. 23 in Carl Schurz Park. (
)
Central Park is deserted as the blizzard gathers strength on the evening of Feb. 22. (
)
Cleopatra’s Needle, Central Park, the night the blizzard of ‘26 stuck on Feb. 22. (
)
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in Central Park is barely visible on the night of the blizzard on Feb. 22. (
)
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in Central Park on Feb. 22. (
)
Few ventured out as the blizzard struck NYC on the evening of Feb. 22. A lone pedestrian crosses E. 83rd St and Madison Ave. (
)
Kids pull sleds in Carl Schurz Park on Feb. 23 on a day when Mamdani cancelled classes and gave a snow day. (
)
A convoy of snow plows hits the Upper East Side. (
)
A blizzard that dumped over 15 inches of snow on most of Manhattan raged onwards on the afternoon of Monday, Feb. 23, after ramping up in earnest on the evening of Feb. 22.
Washington Heights in northern Manhattan recorded 22.1 inches of snow, the heaviest snowfall recorded in the borough. Heavy snow caused a huge tree branch to crash to the street on Park Ave and 68th St on Feb. 22. Madison Square Park was closed due to the danger of falling branches on Feb. 23 and and a city dump truck fell into a sinkhole that opened up near City Hall.
The heavy snowfall marks the first blizzard to hit the city since Jan. 2016. It’s been classified as a “bomb cyclone” or “Nor’easter” by meteorologists, due to the rapid drop in barometric pressure that has given it so much force.
Wind gusts of up to 47 MPH were reported in Manhattan around 3 a.m. on Feb. 23.
As the storm gathered momentum on Sunday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani issued a travel ban for all non-essential vehicle traffic that was in effect from 9 p.m. on Feb. 23 to noon on Feb. 23. This meant that only emergency-response vehicles, MTA buses, utility vehicles, or vehicles transporting workers deemed essential were permitted on the roads.
After getting some criticism for ordering schools kids to learn remotely in an earlier Jan. 24 storm, this time around Mamdani gave a snow day to the city’s approximately one million public school students, the first since 2019. He encouraged schoolchildren to go sledding once the blizzard slows, which started around midday on Feb. 23. Students will officially be instructed to return to class on Tuesday, Feb. 24.
By the end of the day on Feb. 23, the website Plow NYC showed that about half the roads in Manhattan, especially along the north/south avenues, had been plowed once in the past hour. Most of the east/west streets had been plowed at least once in the past three hours.
The Feb. 22-23 blizzard follows another walloping winter storm that hit New York City a month ago, which dropped 11.5 inches on Central Park on Jan. 25.
The bitterly cold weather that both preceded and outlasted that storm led to 26 deaths, 19 of which occurred outdoors, city officials say. A large number of these deaths reportedly stemmed from hypothermia but several were from drug overdoses.
Snow from last month’s storm also took weeks to melt due to a persistent streak of sub-freezing temperatures; the melting process appeared to have neared completion in many areas when the current blizzard touched down.
City officials say that above-freezing temperatures in the days following Feb. 23 will greatly speed up the melt-off this time around, however. If a new Farmer’s Almanac’s forecast bears out, New Yorkers can look forward to a dry and warmer-than-usual spring, too.