When you live high in the sky, it is some times hard to judge the weather conditions on the ground. So when I ventured down to the (Hudson) River about 3 PM on Saturday, at the height of the blizzard, I was surprised at what I encountered.
On Broadway, Jonas was the only show in town that wasn't cancelled and Times Square was the perfect venue to experience it. Did you see all the tourists milling around, in awe of the snow and flashing billboards? But as one moved west, away from the sky scrapers and glitz in Midtown, the storm showed a more ferocious side.
I slipped outside around 3 PM, just as the storm was intensifying, to quelch my curiosity. Enough Weather Channel already! But as I left my apartment building, I realized my outing was going to be very short-lived. The easterly wind and pelting snow, made walking west nearly impossible. (Let's not even talk about holding onto one's hat; it became a fools folly to say the least.)
I crossed River Terrace, at the northern edge of Battery Park, hoping to catch a view of the river. But as you can see above, both the Nelson Rockefeller Park and the river were obscured by the blinding, swirling snow.
Turing north, the river was eerily visible, but Pier 25 was completely lost behind the snow. If you look closely, you can barely make out the silhouetteof a sail boat docked at the pier. On more hospitable days, the view looks like this.
This walkway leads down to the park. I thought for a split-second that the NYC Parks Department had somehow miraculously cleared the way. Silly me, the wind whipped the powdery snow off this section of the path. But as I walked around the corner, the snow drift came up to my chest. If I had continued down the path, this is where I would have ended up.
For the record, this is what snow looks like when it is being blown horizontally by the wind.
This is a picture of River Terrace, looking south. At this point, there was about 10 inches of snow on the ground and the road looked like it had not been plowed in a while. By the end of the storm (around 11 PM), an additional 16 inches of snow had fallen -- missing the all-time highest accumulation in NYC by approximately 1.5 inches.
Unlike Hurricane Sandy, this storm evoked more awe than fear in most New Yorkers. After all, it is very unusual to have this much snow fall, over a 24 hour period. But for me, I guess I was the most taken back by the ferocity and sheer beauty of it all. It is not easy to shut down one of the most populated cities in the US. But somehow, Jonas made it look easy.