First Major Snowfall of 2017 for NY Harbor

​January is the prime winter month for New York Harbor. Snow and cold strive to dominate the landscape. Yet for a lot of people, this Saturday snowstorm was a big surprise.
 
First weather forecasts early in the week called for an inch or two around the harbor. Later on forecasts were revised for under 3 inches. So everyone was thinking it was going to be no big deal. But by Friday afternoon into Saturday afternoon, winter weather advisories and warnings had gone up for anywhere from 4 to 8 inches or more.
 
Sunday morning I woke up to around 5.5 inches of fresh snow where I live near Sandy Hook Bay, located along the southern shore of New York Harbor. Up in Central Park in New York City they measured over 5 inches of snow. Newark airport received around 5.5 inches of snow and Perth Amboy received 6 inches. JFK airport and Queens County in New York City received the most snow around the harbor with over 8 inches.  

​This was a coastal storm moving up from the Carolinas. So towns and communities closer to the path of the storm received even more snow. Atlantic City, NJ received 9 inches and out in Suffolk County, NY places like Mattituck, Riverhead, and Yaphank received more than 10 inches of snow. Farther east on Cape Cod, they received between 12-18 inches of snow. Seven to 8 inches was measured in the Boston area. Places that really could have used the snow like ski resorts in the the high mountains of New York, Vermont and New Hampshire didn't get a flake. 
 
With a surge of arctic air in place along with gusty winds, there will not be much melting today. It’s best to stay local, bundle up and go bird watching or look for animal tracks in the snow with a thermos of hot chocolate.