Event Summary

The development of the blizzard/winter storm began along the southeast coast on Wednesday January 3, 2018. An amplifying upper level trough spawned the development of low pressure off the coast of Florida. The low pressure rapidly intensified on Wednesday night through Thursday January 4, 2018 as it moved north-northeast along the coast. The low passed just east of the 40N 70W benchmark Thursday afternoon. The central pressure when the storm developed was around 1004 millibars at 1 pm Wednesday. 24 hours later, the central pressure fell to around 950 mb, approximately a 54 millibar drop. The rapid intensification of the storm led to heavy snow, strong winds, and blizzard conditions over Long Island, and in Queens in New York City and the Lower Hudson Valley. Near-blizzard conditions occurred across Manhattan, the Bronx, and Brooklyn. Thundersnow was also observed across eastern Long Island. Thousands of flights were cancelled on January 4, 2018 and nearly 900 were cancelled the day after the blizzard. System-wide delays and cancellations occurred on the Long Island Railroad and Metro North Railroad. There were also numerous accidents on across southeast New York. Thousands of homes and businesses also lost power.Trained spotters, the public, and CoCoRaHS observers reported 7 to 11 inches of snow. The FAA Contract Observer at La Guardia International Airport reported 7.4 inches of snow. The La Guardia International Airport ASOS measured a 52 MPH wind gust at 6:04 PM and frequently gusted 40 to 50 MPH through the peak of the winter storm.