This winter, Jack Frost went completely broke.
Town was eight days on Tuesday from setting the record for the longest snow drought in Big Apple history – 322 days – leaving some New Yorkers wondering where the white thing went.
“This shouldn’t be okay. It’s worrisome,” said Ambryana Douglas, 23, a store worker in Manhattan. “It almost looks like autumn. I feel like we’re in October. I can go outside in a hoodie in mid-January and that is not right.”
The last measurable snowfall in five municipalities was on March 9 last yr. If the city stays snow-free by January 25, it would break the record of 322 snow-free days since 1973, said Fox Weather meteorologist Stephen McCloud.
The shortage of downpours not only makes people miss sledding and snowball fights, nevertheless it affects the city’s funds, saving the sanitation department tens of thousands and thousands of dollars thus far.
Meanwhile, winter equipment corporations are seeing a chill of their financial results.
“Every yr, so far as I can remember, we ordered salt, shovels and scrapers for the winter. Nothing this yr,” said Carlos Garnelo, manager of the Basics Plus ironmongery shop in Turtle Bay, Manhattan.
“At the moment of yr, we normally sell about 30 snow shovels. Most individuals buy salt bags prematurely, so we all the time have plenty in stock. Sometimes they create a hand truck to maneuver it throughout.”
Even when the prolonged forecast predicted warmer-than-average weather, Garnelo said normal sales were just one storm away.
“You never know, it might snow at the end of the month. I still have hope. There are two months of winter left and we’re counting on this extra profit to assist the store.”
Only a paltry 22 snow shovels, nine icebreakers, and 7 window scrapers were on display at Home Depot on East 59th Street.
“They sometimes fly off the hangers in January, but the ones you see are only hanging there. We’ve got more in the back, they were sitting there too,” said a Home Depot worker. “Until someone comes up with an application for snow shovels that does not involve snow, they don’t seem to be going anywhere.”
In keeping with Department of Sanitation Press Secretary Vincent Gragnani, the New York City Charter allocates roughly $96 million each season to snow and ice removal.
He said any money not spent by the department goes back to the city’s general fund.
“Let me be clear: less snow saves a variety of money – in salt and time beyond regulation – and allows our sanitation staff to proceed uninterrupted with the remainder of their work,” Gragnani said in an emailed statement to The Post.
He explained that the lack of powder allows New York’s Strongest to think about collecting 24 million kilos of every day garbage and recycling.
If Old Man Winter finally picks up, DOS has “700 million kilos of salt and 365,500 gallons of calcium chloride,” Gragnani said.
Central Park receives a mean of 30 inches of snow every year, but in response to the National Weather Service, that total can vary greatly.
Snowfall totals exceeded 50 inches 3 times in 2010, but lower than five inches were recorded in the winter of 2019-2020, in response to data.
“I even have a son who lives in Guyana and he really wants to come back here. He’s just crying to see what the snow is all about,” said Patrick Ramchurejee, 73.
“Let’s make it snow again! I like snow. It’s totally peaceful, the nights are quiet and shiny,” he continued.
“I like snow. I remember it snowed every yr. It worries me very much that it hasn’t snowed for therefore long. Global warming affects the whole world.”
Douglas said he was completely satisfied to see the streets uncluttered, though the lack of snow was “disturbing” to him.
“Normally presently of yr the piles could be high. I’m a bit completely satisfied because I don’t love walking in the snow when it gets slippery and dirty and I come home with wet socks. I hate it,” said Douglas.
Tourists Sam Rayner, 24, and Julia Cooke, 35, from Vancouver, said they were glad they didn’t leave Canada to go to one other winter wonderland.
“I feel with snow it will be picturesque, but additionally irritating. It could be very slippery. I don’t love wearing winter boots. I like wearing sneakers. All of it sounds petty, but I’m completely satisfied,” Rayner said.
“We’re so used to snow and it’s nice not to fret about it. But that is a bit disturbing.
Cooke said she was also completely satisfied to have the opportunity to avoid the inconvenience but was concerned about climate change.
“We’re very completely satisfied that it shouldn’t be snowing. As for the environment, it applies. We’re completely satisfied that it’s warm here, but we’re not completely satisfied with the long-term effects.”
Temperatures were expected to hit the 50s on Wednesday and stay in the 40s for many of the week, never approaching January’s average low of 28 degrees, in response to McCloud.
“We’re locked into this scheme where no cold air is getting in,” he told The Post.
He added that if the snow falls now through January 29, it would set the record for the last first measurable snowfall this yr in the city.
“Storm systems [that recently resulted in rain] either directly overhead or moving directly offshore and bringing warmer air from above the water into the city,” McCloud said.
“Normally, we would have some polar air that will start getting in and provides us a likelihood of snow.”
The meteorologist blamed the warming on “seasonal changes”.
New Yorkers who wish to play in the snow can all the time flock to the ski resorts north of the city, which depend upon snowmaking to remain in business.
Hunter Mountain, 130 miles north in the Catskill Mountain Range, recorded just one inch of snow last week, but in response to the website, 36 of the 66 lifts were open.
“Snowmaking will proceed if temperatures permit,” the website said.
About 60 miles north of the city, at the Thunder Ridge ski resort in Patterson, New York, 11 of the 22 trails were open.
No ski resort returned a request for comment from The Post.
Neither Washington nor Philadelphia recorded snow this winter and were near local records. Up the I-95 corridor in Boston, a snowstorm hit this weekend as several inches fell on the city.