Before this weekend, my only experience of bad weather had been the occasional lightning storm, which usually lasts for about two hours and sometimes knocks over some rickety sheds. On the south coast of Britain, about once a year an inch or less of snow will fall. This often induces mass panic, leads to the closure of schools, causes the temporary shutdown of businesses, and children desperately scrape at the ground in the futile hope of being able to make a snowball from the sludge.
This weekend, the second biggest blizzard on record hit New York City. I didn’t know exactly what to expect, although I had inkling that there would be lots of snow. How it would play out was entirely new to me. Luckily, it struck on a Saturday, meaning that neither my wife nor I had to be anywhere, so there were no public transportation woes to worry about, no risk of being stranded. Instead, we made the most of it. Here’s my experience.
The Calm Before:
To say that the Americans took the oncoming storm lightly is an understatement. I was surprised. This is probably the effect of me watching too many disaster movies, where people are running around, grabbing supplies and fighting over the last tin of beans in the middle of a crowded supermarket. Instead, on the Friday afternoon before the storm, I went to the supermarket to grab some water and food, and found the lines to be slightly longer than usual, with many people buying lots of water. There was no rushing, squabbling or unpleasantness.
As someone who once worked in a supermarket in Britain, I can say this is a marked difference to what I know. In my old supermarket, arguments happened all the time; if the store was to be closed for one day, for say Easter or Christmas, then hysteria would break out the day before, and security would often be called to disrupt fights.
The Storm:
It started snowing late on Friday night. I didn’t notice it for hours and then looked out of my window to see the floor covered in snow. I was up until 4am (nothing like a good X-Files marathon during extreme weather), so saw it grow through the night.
I woke early. Yet more snow had fallen, but the view from my window didn’t give the impression of anything too intense. I was wrong. The view from my window is into a very sheltered courtyard, so relatively little wind was blowing about. This occurred to me at the back of my mind, but I was still convinced that the big one was, actually, quite small.
Reassured by the scene from our window, my wife and I decided to go outside. Our first attempt lasted about three seconds. The snow wasn’t falling calmly like outside our window, but shooting diagonally, like thousands of little pellets a second. We walked out and walked back in again. I don’t own a hat, so was going to go without one. This turned out to be impossible, so my wife lent me one of hers.
Now that I was properly head dressed we set out. Our intention was to go to the park, which is usually a brisk half mile walk. After a few more seconds of walking, we revised our destination to the end of the block. However, after a minute or so we were able to acclimatize to the snow very easily. It was still hitting us hard, but once you’re used to it, it’s very bearable. I even felt quite warm, despite the fact the snow was sticking to my coat, making me look like a huge frozen sneeze.
We re-revised our plans again, and kept on heading to the park. On the way, we took note of which shops were still open. It was the same route we took at Christmas to get to the subway, so it was interesting to see which event caused more closures. I can say that blizzard easily beats Christmas; on Christmas it seemed like half the shops were running like usual; in the blizzard we saw that only the 7/11, Dunkin’ Donuts and Wendy’s was open. I also suspect that I saw someone in Pizza Hut, but that could have just been the snow making me hallucinate. On the way back we found some delis, grocery stores and a coffee shop letting people in. I must say, I’m profoundly sorry to the coffee shop for my ice jacket melting all over their floors.
Us arriving at the park:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVtdbNYplr8&feature=youtu.be
We arrived in Prospect Park. Usually, it’s packed. Today, we had it mostly to ourselves. Occasionally, there was a small group of hardy explorers or skiers, or in one instance a jogger who wouldn’t let the blizzard ruin his routine, but it was eerily quiet on the most part. We got some good pictures, walked around and when it was starting to get dark, decided to head home.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BA5buG3GFEk/?taken-by=whobalaya
The Storm Intensifies:
On the way back, the storm got worse. The snow, blowing in our faces, really started to sting. It was still really weird to see the city so deserted. My street is usually packed, but now there was just the occasional person shoveling snow, and maybe a police car.
It looked properly post-apocalyptic, and despite the now painful snow, got a couple of interesting shots of the city at night.
The hardest thing about the journey home was, perhaps unsurprisingly, the snow, which in the intervening hours had built up so much more. My wife opted to walk in the road, while I stuck to the path. As both had areas where the snow was incredibly difficult to drudge through, it’s hard to tell which the better option was.
Eventually, we reached our apartment building, pulled open the door with a struggle, and got home, soaked.
The Storm Dies Down:
Luckily, New York landlords legally have to keep their apartments warm at no expense to the tenant; so when we got home the heat was pumping out.
I made a roast chicken dinner, and we enjoyed the evening at home. The snow died down, and stopped entirely at some point in the evening.
Even now, two days later, snow is still thick in the courtyard and is stacked in huge piles all along the side of the roads; but life in the city has gone back to normal, and people are just dealing with it.
I don’t have a clue how long it will take for all the snow to melt, but it seems to be taking forever. I’m sure a heatwave will come along soon enough.