Snow More! New Yorkers Buried By Second Big Winter Whiteout

By Katie Honan, Jose Martinez, and Gwynne Hogan, The City

Feb. 23, 2026, 10:35 a.m.

A powerful blizzard dumped more than a foot and a half of snow in parts of New York City early Monday, knocking out power to thousands of customers.

Deep piles of snow and wind gusts exceeding 50 m.p.h. hampered anyone who needed to commute, even as city officials implored people to stay home except for emergencies.

The MTA suspended service on the C, the Rockaway Park Shuttle and the Staten Island Railway. Severe delays hit several other lines; express trains ran on local tracks, and buses slowed to a crawl as they navigated snowy roads and whiteout conditions.

Service on the Long Island Rail Road was shut down, while Metro-North operated on a reduced schedule along its Hudson, Harlem and New Haven lines. All New Jersey Transit rail, light rail, bus and paratransit service remained suspended.

People board a bus in the East Village during a blizzard, Feb. 23, 2026. Credit: Gwynne Hogan/THE CITY

But some New Yorkers braved the elements despite the blizzard warning. On the Upper West Side early Monday, James Hammond, 86, was walking with the help of a cane along a narrow path on Columbus Avenue. He recently had a hip replacement.

“I’ve been in these kinds of things before; it’s not that bad,” he said.

“You have to be a little more extra careful. It’s annoying, that’s all, it’s annoying.”

More than 18 inches of snow fell in Crown Heights, and 17 inches were on the ground in Williamsburg, Sheepshead Bay and Washington Heights by 8:30 a.m. Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

Coney Island saw 16 inches, and more than 15 inches of snow blanketed Central Park and John F. Kennedy Airport.

More accumulation is expected throughout the day, with up to two feet possible according to forecasts for the blizzard, the first to hit NYC in a decade.

Nearly all of the city streets had been plowed at least once by Monday morning, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said, and multiple shifts of 2,600 sanitation workers were boosted by hundreds of emergency snow shovelers Sunday night and into the morning.

Sanitation workers plow streets in Brooklyn during a blizzard, Feb. 23, 2026. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY

Workers cleared more than 1,000 crosswalks, hundreds of fire hydrants and unsheltered bus stops — a response to January’s storm, where snow piles made some bus stops treacherous. The sanitation department created a database since the last storm to map out where there are unsheltered bus stops and crosswalks that could use clearing.

“In addition to plowing the city streets, we’ve also got geotags for the first time of every unsheltered bus stop and crosswalk across New York City, so DSNY knows when it’s getting to those sites, so New Yorkers can get around the city,” Mamdani said.

But he warned New Yorkers against going outside if they didn’t have to.

“The best way to stay safe in this storm, frankly, is to stay inside,” he said on News 12.

New York City public school students had their first traditional snow day, without any remote instruction, since 2019, in part because Monday was the first in-person day back after February break. Mamdani said they’ll update students and parents this afternoon about whether they’ll return to school on Tuesday.

The blizzard conditions also brought gusty winds nearing 60 m.p.h. in some parts of the city. Power to nearly 5,000 customers in Rockaway was knocked out before 5 a.m, according to PSE&G, which provides power to the peninsula. About 3,000 customers scattered around New York City were also without power, according to Con Edison, representing less than 1% of the total customers.

Some of that power was restored hours later.

The heavy snow began falling Sunday, and the Long Island Rail Road and NJ Transit paused service in the evening, which left Edward Eodgo, a 50-year-old delivery worker from Newark, stranded in Penn Station at around 11 p.m.

“I’m very worried. I don’t know how to do this night,” he said. “I don’t know what to do.”

The city opened warming facilities across the city, including 18 warming buses and more than 20 spaces run by the city’s public hospitals or at schools. Mamdani also said more outreach workers would be dispatched across the city to try and get people to come indoors.

At least 19 people died outdoors during the city’s extended cold weather that began in January, according to the city.

Michael Gonzalez, who’s been homeless for a year and a half, was crashing in the Penn Station concourse late Sunday night and said “only God can tell” where he’d spend the night.

“I’m tired of shelters,” Gonzalez, 31, told THE CITY. “I sleep with a knife under my chest, that’s how I did it at Rikers — no-go to the shelters.”

By midnight Sunday in Tompkins Square Park, more than a dozen towering snowmen, each more than seven feet high, had cropped up throughout the park.

Groups of teens ran around throwing snowballs at each other.

Dog owners play in Fort Greene Park during a blizzard, Feb. 23, 2026. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY

Daniel Timbie, 30, and Ben Turok, 26, were walking to their apartments nearby when they took a detour through Tompkins and started building a gigantic snowman.

“It’s incredible packing snow, I’ve never felt such good snow in my life,” Timbie said.

“I grew up in Utah and this is by far the best snow I’ve ever seen for making a snowman,” Turok added.

Ricardo Hernandez, a facilities manager, was shoveling outside the studio in the East Village where he works.

“It’s tiring,” he said, as the snow continued to fall. “I don’t know if I’m even making a dent, but you gotta try.”

This press release was produced by The City. The views expressed here are the author’s own.