Event Summary

A cold front slipped south of the tri-state area during the day on Thursday, March 15. This allowed colder air to work into the region after several days of anomalously warm temperatures. Farther to the south, along the Gulf Coast, low pressure developed and deepened as it tracked northeast along the boundary. The deepening low tracked to near the Mid Atlantic coast Friday evening, March 16, to just east of Montauk Point Saturday morning, March 17. Initially, the precipitation started off as a light mix of snow, sleet, and rain during the early morning hours, but, as the colder air continued to deepen, the precipitation fell primarily as a mix of snow and sleet during the daytime hours, falling moderate to occasionally heavy at times. The precipitation fell primarily as snow across the Lower Hudson Valley, while New York City and Long Island were primarily a mix of sleet and snow. During the evening hours, inland areas began to mix more with sleet, while at the coast some areas changed over to plain rain. Snow and sleet totals ranged from 8 to 13 inches in the Lower Hudson Valley, to 3 to 6 inches in New York City and 2 to 7 inches across Long Island. At Central Park, 5.5 inches was measured; 4.5 inches at LaGuardia Airport; 2.7 inches at JFK Airport, and 3.3 inches at Islip Airport. In addition, there were major impacts on mass transit with high winds and heavy wintry precipitation during the evening rush-hour traffic. Hundreds of flights were cancelled at the metropolitan airports with many planes stuck on the tarmac.