kat5hurricane

Welcome to a normal NYC winter climate, it took about 20 years to get there. The fact of the matter is that we've been extremely spoiled this century. A regression to the mean with a string of subpar winters was inevitable. This one can still be salvaged with one big storm (like '05-'06 for instance) but not looking good as of now. I'd be willing to sacrifice the rest of winter if it meant no cold and wet spring. That's the absolute worst.

Got a little over 2" in Whitestone and still snowing lightly. Looks beautiful outside. You learn to appreciate even the minor events in winters like this.

About 1" in Whitestone and moderate snow. Best event of the season already as sad as that sounds.

And it's going to be amped too. Bad track and marginal air mass. Pretty much a non event for a good chunk of us which is fine because in a way, I prefer mostly rain to washed away snow.

I never understood why anybody at the coast gets hyped for events like this. SWFE events without a true arctic airmass in place are pretty much non events for us coasties. 2-4 at best washed away by rain does nothing for me personally. It's been a winter of non events thus far.

Even if this winter turns out to be a stinker, people need to keep their disappointment in perspective. Lots of spoiled folks who have become accustomed to 30+ inch winters as the norm (in the immediate metro of course). We've been incredibly lucky the last 20 years or so. The 2000s have been the Golden Era of snow since records have been kept so we are long overdue for a string of bad winters. At some point, there will be regression to the mean for us coasties and last year might have started that trend.

I think Feb 2006 was mostly forgotten because the heaviest snow fell in a smaller area relative to other blizzards and as you said, it melted within 2-3 days. Plus it occurred over the weekend so there were less people on the road. Having experienced the full fury of that storm, it is perhaps the most memorable of any storm I ever witnessed. I was visiting somebody in The Bronx and stayed overnight. The snow wasn't really that heavy when I went to sleep so I thought it would be a pedestrian major with a foot or so as was forecasted then I woke up to huge drifts and thundersnow going on for what seemed like an hour. I went to look for my car and couldn't find it because so many cars were buried in drifts. It then took us a couple of hours to dig out because I had to go home and drove over the Throgs Neck bridge which had piles of snow all the way through (never seen that before on a major bridge) and took me hours to get home. The pure intensity of that snow with the Death Band sitting over the city producing Severe Thundersnow is something I'll never forget. One of those moments when you remembered everything you were doing at that time in every detail. Feb '06, Boxing Day and PDII are king for me in my 40 years. Honourable mentions to Jan '16 and Jan '96.

'14-'15 was a lot like that too in the second half particularly. Lots of moderate 4-8 type events but consistent cold keeping the snowpack with what seemed like weekly snow events keeping the pack intact and fresh. That was my favourite winter simply because it was endless winter. '10-'11 had the massive storms but the snowpacks were short lived. February 2006 might have been my favourite storm because the thundersnow was so intense and long lasting, never seen anything like it before or after. PDIi for the long duration and bitter cold is high up on the list too. So many others over the last 25 years that can be included as well. The '96 Blizzards, Boxing Day, Jan 2016 etc. We've been spoiled big time, a Golden Era of snow this century. I expect a regression to the mean eventually with some relatively snowless winters like last year for instance.