Winter Storm — Northwest Suffolk, New York

2000-02-19 · Northwest Suffolk, New York

Wider weather episode

With cold air in place, as a warm front approached from the south and a weak low pressure system moved northeast along the coast, light snow developed from around 6:40 am at Westchester County Airport to 10:45 am at Westhampton Beach (in Suffolk County). Snowfall became heavy, falling at the rate of at least 1 inch per hour from around 10 am across the entire area until around 4 pm across Orange and Putnam Counties. Snow changed to freezing rain from around 2:30 pm along the south shore of Long Island to around 7 pm across Orange County.Snowfall amounts ranged from 1 to 2 inches along the south shores of Long Island, 3 to 4 inches across the north shores of Long Island and New York City to 6 inches across the Lower Hudson Valley. This first round of heavy precipitation was followed by up to a 1/8th-inch thick ice coating, which caused serious and widespread traffic disruptions.Here are selected snowfall amounts:For Orange County: from 5.5 inches at Middletown, Walden, and Greenwood Lake to 6.5 inches at Montgomery.For Putnam County: from 3 inches at Lake Carmel to 6 inches at Croton Falls.For Westchester County: from 2 inches at Yonkers to 6 inches at White Plains.For New York (Manhattan) County: from 3 inches at Central Park to 3.8 inches at Columbia University.For Queens County: from 2 inches at JFK Airport to 3 inches at LGA Airport.A second low pressure system moved east from Pennsylvania, and passed "just" south of Long Island overnight. This low produced freezing rain across the region. At both JFK Airport and LGA Airport, 0.25 and 0.26 inches of freezing rain was measured as temperatures hovered from 30 to 31 degrees. At Central Park, 0.23 inches of freezing rain was measured. Significant icing of roads occurred, which forced the closure of many metro roads overnight. Numerous traffic accidents occurred on ice-covered roads. A woman died when her car spun out of control on ice-covered streets in Centereach (Suffolk County) early Saturday morning.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5127159. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.