Winter Storm — Eastern Greene, New York

2026-01-25 to 2026-01-26 · Eastern Greene, New York

Event narrative

Zone average snowfall of 14.6 inches.

Wider weather episode

A blockbuster winter storm that impacted millions across the lower 48, bringing a combination of ice; sleet; snow; rain; and strong winds, brought widespread heavy snowfall accumulations to all of eastern New York from January 25-26th, 2026.

An arctic blast made for dangerously cold conditions across eastern New York from January 23-24, creating a requisite cold airmass that supported snow as the primary precipitation type with this storm. The connection of the northern and southern stream flow regimes then steered a potent, Gulf-originating low pressure system to the northeast. Strong to anomalous low- to mid-level dynamics drove impressive moisture transport from the Gulf and western Atlantic in and across the region the morning of the impending storm, Sunday January 25th. Snow began Sunday morning, initially with a large dendritic growth zone courtesy of persistent arctic air being filtered into the region from northerly flow about a nearby surface high to the northeast. However, as the storm tracked closer, its associated warm nose modified the thermal profile and shrunk and lifted the dendritic growth zone into the mid and upper levels of the atmosphere by the afternoon. Snowfall rates that initially looked to reach up to 2-4 per hour within laterally translating snow bands therefore became limited to 1-2 per hour courtesy of the disconnect between the best low-level forcing and the dendritic growth zone. Still, a widespread 10-20 of snow fell across the region between Sunday, January 25th and Monday, January 26th.

The expansive impacts that this storm had on New York State as a whole led Governor Kathy Hochul to declare a widespread State of Emergency which encompassed all of our portion of eastern New York. NWS Albany received reports of numerous school and road closures in addition to traffic accidents across eastern New York.

Key Impacts: state of emergency declarations, road closures, school closures, travel restrictions, traffic accidents.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1313284. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.