This past week, New York City received its first snowfall of the 2023/2024 Winter Season. The coverage by local news media was as if we were going to get two feet or more of snow. The rationale behind all the “hoopla,” that it was the first significant snowfall in about 700 days for NYC.
I say all that, to speak about how I love to be out in the snow just like many others. My thrill is not to go out and throw snowballs, toboggan or sled down a hill in Prospect Park, or even ski in Central Park. I just love to get out there to photograph it! Think about the song by The Dramatics in 1972—”I wanna go outside in the rain.” Just change the word “rain” to “snow,” and that would be my life anthem. I believe that many photographers feel the same way. Fresh fallen snow, clean, undisturbed. The higher the amount, the better.
So, here I give you my photographic stories through the past twenty-seven years of Snowstorms & Blizzards.
It’s tricky to get out into the city when there’s a snowstorm. It’s heavily dependent on the buses and subway operating. Years ago, nothing stopped the system from operating. The past ten years or so, some subway lines will close down since they ran fully or partially outdoors. It would be even more severe if you depended on a subway line that ran in an open trench (such as the Q, B, and Franklin Avenue Shuttle lines for instance).
Imagine these hard to get to subway track with two feet of snow covering them. I just wouldn’t want to get caught outside with no way to get back home. There’s a small thought that seeps in sometime—it would be worth getting stranded if I could photograph a monumental once-in-a-lifetime experience.
This photo is taken the same day as the first one above. This look like it’s a Blizzard. The only difference between a Snowstorm and a Blizzard is the wind speed. A Snowstorm is anytime where it is cold enough to where snow falls no matter the total amount of snow. A Blizzard is when it’s cold enough for snow to fall, but the winds have to be at 35 miles per hour for three hours or more. Kind of strange, if there’s 35 mph winds for two and a half hours, it’s not considered a Blizzard. There is no amount of snow that determines a Snowstorm from a Blizzard. You can have either with just one inch of snow. Semantics!
In 2003, NYC got 19.8 inches of snow. Enough to make it the eighth biggest snowstorm in NYC to date.
Yes, I’ve been going out into New York City Snowstorms for more than twenty-seven years. I don’t apologize, it’s a joy to be able to bring these images to you as a reference point in life. I know there are places in the world where this amount of snow is just a drop in the bucket. I make no inference that these are the biggest storms ever. They are what many New Yorkers have experienced throughout the years in living in the city.
With 20.2 inches of snow, it is the sixth largest storm in NYC to date.
Then, in February 2010, NYC received the fifth biggest snowfall to date with 20.9 inches.
The view outside my window the morning of February 26, 2010 when the snowstorm began to taper off.
New York City’s second highest snowfall total to date was in 2016 with 26.9 inches of snow. See, people just love getting out there when it snows. The fresh snow will only last a few hours with this amount of people sledding on the hill, then depending on the temperature—it will freeze into ice or turn into slush. Ugh!
Oh, you thought I’d let you go with not referencing the largest snowfall total in NYC to date? I wouldn’t do that. This is it! January 24-25, 2016 is when 27.5 inches of it came down. I don’t recall if it had reached Blizzard status or not.
It was bad enough that I had to walk wherever I needed to go. No buses, minimal subway lines running—until at least the morning right after it stopped snowing.
The city government tends to favor specific parts of Manhattan when it comes to quickly cleaning snow from the city. The Sanitation Department brings out snow-melters to melt the fallen snow into the storm drains.
Sometime, street corners are surrounded by puddles that people will find hard to traverse. Some will work harder than others to circumvent the hardships of puddles .
I have so much more than I can show, but will leave it here for now.
I thank you for reading Living Life Photographically. It’s a labor of creativity and joy for me. I hope that it informed you with stimulating visuals and information. Let me know your thoughts with a comment.
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Til next time…
Thank you,
Kenneth