New York Today: The Return of Winter
Updated, 7:12 a.m.
Good morning on this unthawing Thursday.
It feels like only 5 to 10 degrees with the wind chill.
And the mercury is not budging.
For the next two days, we’re expecting to be hit with the coldest weather of the season so far.
It’s an arctic blast of the worst kind: snow that doesn’t stick, wind gusts powerful enough to strip away any final autumn leaves, and bitterly cold temperatures. But it wasn’t enough to cancel school.
The culprits are a pair of cold, cold fronts, one right after the other, said John Murray, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service. “So the cold air is getting reinforced,” he said, with even icier air expected tonight.
A wind advisory today becomes high wind warning tonight, bracing us for gusts of up to 60 miles an hour.
The city is urging residents to hunker down inside as much as possible today, and to pile on layers if they’re heading outdoors.
In case you’re wondering, no, this is not normal.
It’s not record-breaking: The lowest temperature on record for Dec. 15 was in 1874, at 6 degrees.
But with temperatures dipping into the 20s through Saturday, we’re running about 15 to 20 degrees below normal.
Then again, what’s normal these days?
Last year, on this day, the temperature hit a record high of 68.
Remember? The 2015 Christmas season in New York looked more like Los Angeles, with Santas sweating in their stockings, runners in shirts and tank tops, and surfers paddling out on Christmas morning.
Some New Yorkers lamented the lack of that warm Christmassy feeling, despite the heat.
That holiday setting?
Today, it’s cold comfort.
Here’s what else is happening:
In the News
• Acceptance or rejection? New York’s young immigrants are uncertain about the president-elect, Donald J. Trump. [New York Times]
• The latest installment of The Times investigation into every murder in the city’s 40th Police Precinct explores the story of Adrian Maldonado, killed after a drug deal at a Bronx housing complex. [New York Times]
• A detailed look at a synthetic drug, 85 times as potent as marijuana, that caused a “zombielike” state in Brooklyn. [New York Times]
• A Muslim woman who reported that several men attacked her on the subway and tried to pull off her hijab made up the hate crime, the police said. [New York Times]
• A big fire broke out at NYU Langone Medical Center on Wednesday. [DNAinfo]
• A look at the 50-year history of the Poetry Project, a New York institution that has inspired poets and has become a haven for rock musicians and writers. [Village Voice]
• The city’s Department of Homeless Services has become increasingly reliant on commercial hotels to house homeless people. [Gothamist]
• New York prohibits most late-term abortions. But soon, that might change. [DNAinfo]
• An inquisitive young girl inspired her tutor, Naivon Lake Jr., to turn his life around and go to college. [New York Times]
• Today’s Metropolitan Diary: “Lost and Found on a Summer Garden Night”
• Scoreboard: Nets trap Lakers, 107-97.
• For a global look at what’s happening, see Your Thursday Briefing.
Coming Up Today
• Mayor Bill de Blasio attends a town hall-style meeting at Edward A. Reynolds West Side High School on the Upper West Side. 7 p.m.
• The comedian Elizardi Castro performs at the Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education in the Bronx. 7 p.m. [$25]
• Cassandra Peterson, also known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, chats with fans and signs copies of her book at the Barnes & Noble on the Upper West Side. 7 p.m. [Free]
• Hear five opera works in progress at the Kaufman Music Center in Midtown, Manhattan. 7:30 p.m. [$25]
• Music and dance based on solstice rituals, part of the Winter Solsticecelebration, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on the Upper West Side. 8 p.m. [Tickets start at $35]
• “It’s a Wonderful Life,” performed in the style of a radio broadcast from the 1940s, at RWS Studios in Long Island City, Queens. 8 p.m. [$10]
• Islanders host Blackhawks, 7 p.m. (MSG+). Devils at Blues, 8 p.m. (MS+2). Rangers at Stars, 8:30 p.m. (MSG). Knicks at Warriors, 10:30 p.m. (CSBA).
• For more events, see The New York Times’s Arts & Entertainment guide.
Commute
• Alternate-side parking: in effect until Dec. 25.
And Finally...
Earlier this week, we told you how you can play St. Nick for your children.
Now, here’s an opportunity to be a Secret Santa for a child in need.
In Operation Santa, now in its 104th year, volunteers respond to letters sent to Santa Claus and collected by the United States Postal Service.
Wannabe Kris Kringles can adopt a letter and reply as they see fit, with responses ranging from a simple reply to gifts of food, clothing and more.
Our city has the largest Operation Santa program in the country, receiving around a half-million letters from the five boroughs.
Last year, the operation was in the news after three postal workers wrote letters posing as needy children to swindle gifts (and ensuring that they would receive coal for eternity).
But here’s a smaller moment that didn’t make the headlines.
A few years ago, a staff member opened a letter from a child without a bed who was asking Santa for a mattress, said Darleen Reid, a spokeswoman for the Postal Service.
“About five or 10 minutes later, the phone rang,” she said.
On the line was the owner of a mattress store who was liquidating his showroom, and offering to donate his stock of mattresses.
And making one holiday bright in the process.
Was it a Christmas miracle?
Maybe, Ms. Reid said, and either way, “it was a fantastic moment.”
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P.C: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/nyregion/new-york-today-the-return-of-winter.html
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