This snow day was the bomb!
An epic “Bomb Cyclone” dumped a blanket of snow one foot thick over Brooklyn and pummeled locals with nearly 30-mile-per-hour wind gusts on Jan. 4, leading city and state officials to adopt an all-hands-on-deck approach to tackling the winter storm, while the fun-lovers of the borough — including our very own intrepid reporters — seized the snow day for sledding, snowball fights, and storm-chasing.
Our friends at the Weather Channel, who have taken it upon themselves to name winter storms, dubbed the storm “Grayson,” but its more meteorological categorization as a “Bomb Cyclone” comes from its sudden intensification as it undergoes “bombogenesis,” a dramatic 24-hour drop in pressure that brings about intense winds and snowfall.
And snow it did. By Thursday evening, the National Weather Service reported that the borough saw an average of 11.5 inches, with Flatlands clocking in with the highest amount of the white stuff at 12.4 inches, and Fort Hamilton clocking just 7.1 inches. Local pols prepared for the city to tackle the hyped-up storm ahead of time. Mayor DeBlasio announced on Wednesday that the city would give kids a snow day and declared a winter weather emergency, and Gov. Cuomo followed up by declaring a state of emergency for both the city and its suburbs, citing the storm’s particularly intense winds, advising New Yorkers to stay off the roads.
The city largely kept the borough’s streets well plowed throughout the day and until the snow stopped in the early evening on Thursday, according to the city’s plow-tracking map,and the Sanitation Department had dispatched 2,400 plows and spreaders citywide by early afternoon to fight the snow and ice, according to the New York Daily News.
And the borough’s most fearless reporters stormed the snowy streets and sidewalks to report live on how Brooklynites were dealing with the wintry mess. Downtown and Brownstone reporter Julianne Cuba hit the streets in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, where she found a desolate McCarren Park and some snow-loving borough pups willing to brave the storm. She even found winter wonderlands at the Jay Street-MetroTech and Clinton-Washington stations, two of the many city subway stations where straphangers couldn’t escape the city sky’s relentless snowfall, which also hit the 77th Street station in Bay Ridge and Bergen Street in Boerum Hill.
In Southern Brooklyn, Bay Ridge reporter Julianne McShane found a near-desolate nabe and an even more empty Owl’s Head Park. Meanwhile, reporter Alexandra Simon found Flatbush Junction transformed into a veritable tundra.
And storied Park Slope reporter Colin Mixson caught up with some sledders in Prospect Park, including a Prospect Heights dad-and-daughter duo who made the most of the snow day by sliding down the park’s hilly slopes, followed by “naps and hot chocolate.” The dad of the pair told Mixson that they decided to venture out to brave the “snow bomb” only after piling on their warmest winter clothes.
“We decided we were bundled enough, so we decided to head here,” said Adrian Jevicki from his sled driven by his four-year-old daughter, Amira.
But the frigid air showed no signs of letting up. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for the city until 1 am Friday morning, and a wind chill advisory until 10 am Saturday.
But Grayson was fairly middling compared to storms of winters’ past. Who could forget last February’s snow storm, which was no “Bomb Cyclone” but nonetheless pummeled the borough with strong winds and nearly a foot of snow, or the over-hyped Stella storm, which was slated to drop 18 inches on the city but ultimately only brought less than half that?
The storms may be overhyped, but trust that our Downtown headquarters will be staffed in both the hottest and coldest of temps — when it transforms into the #BlizzardBureau — and every day in between.
