In central New York, Central Park was shrouded in a thin layer of white on Tuesday, while the metropolis and other regions of the northeastern United States, home to more than 30 million people, were paralyzed by 30 centimeters of snow in places. , reports AFP.

More than 1,220 flights to and from New York City were canceled by midday, including nearly half of the flights at LaGuardia Airport, more than a quarter of the flights from Newark, New Jersey’s main airport, as a result of this snowstorm, which the U.S. Weather Service had predicted , located on the outskirts of New York, and 20 percent of its traffic comes from the historic hub of JFK, according to the Flight Aware website.

Schools, courts and government offices were also closed and roads were virtually deserted as the National Weather Service (NWS) advised drivers to drive with “extra caution” or “simply avoid driving if possible”.

New York City (population 8.5 million), with iconic landmarks like Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge and Times Square, as well as all the suburbs home to millions more, was covered in a thick blanket of morning snow.

There weren’t many joggers and dogs in Central Park, but there were already a few snowmen and snowball throwers, AFP photographers reported.

The last snowfall in the city was on January 16, completing 700 snow-free days.

With the exception of a brief snowfall in mid-January, New York City has not seen such precipitation since February 2022.

On the other hand, on Christmas Day 2022, the “blizzard of the century” and more than a meter of snow in the vast, mostly rural upstate and western New York state caused dozens of deaths, especially in the Canadian border town of Buffalo, hundreds of kilometers northwest of New York.

In the United States and around the world, the frequency, intensity, and unpredictability of summer and winter storms are increasing as a result of climate change.