Snow Is Falling in New York After a Winter Lull

Snow began to fall across parts of the Northeast on Monday evening, as one of the first significant winter storms arrived late in the season.

Snow and sleet were expected to continue falling through Tuesday morning, bringing accumulation across the region, forecasters said, after a mild winter in which New York City and surrounding areas had been spared the kinds of snowstorms that paralyzed other parts of the United States over the past week.

Five to 7 inches of snow are possible in interior portions of the Northeast, including New Jersey, the Lower Hudson Valley and southern Connecticut, according to the National Weather Service in New York.

Snow-covered roads are expected to make for a slow and messy commute Tuesday morning. In New York City, alternate-side parking rules will be suspended Tuesday, officials said.

Three to 5 inches of snow could fall across parts of northeast New Jersey and southeast New York from Monday evening until early Tuesday, when the precipitation is expected to turn to rain in the city and along the coast, according to the weather service.

Less snow, around 2 to 3 inches, is expected for the southern boroughs of New York City and parts of southern Long Island, the weather service said, adding that any other accumulation would be light and happen “mainly in the morning” across the interior parts of the region Tuesday. New York City and Long Island are expected to switch to a wintry mix and eventually rain by late morning, according to the service’s New York office.

New York City recorded its first measurable snowfall of the season only Feb. 1, with less than a half-inch recorded at Central Park, according to the weather service. It had been 50 years since New York City waited that long for measurable snowfall.

In the past week, snow coated parts of the United States, including Los Angeles County, which faced an uncharacteristic blizzard warning.

Snow and rain in Southern California posed a threat of flooding. Simultaneously, winter weather in the Midwest resulted in at least one death and caused disruptions across several states. Nearly 200,000 customers in Michigan remained without power as of Monday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us. Consumers Energy, a public utility in Michigan, said on Twitter that it had restored power to emergency services and was now “down to the frustrating part of a big storm event. The small outages.”

Going into Tuesday evening, portions of eastern Massachusetts and southeast Rhode Island can expect 3 to 6 inches of snow, according to the weather service in Boston. Portions of northern Connecticut; central, eastern and western Massachusetts; and northern and southern Rhode Island can expect snow accumulations of 5 to 7 inches by Tuesday evening, the service said.

Five to 10 inches of snow are expected Monday into Tuesday in mountain areas, including the southern Adirondacks in New York, southern Green Mountains in Vermont, the Berkshires in Massachusetts and the northern and eastern Catskills in New York, according to the National Weather Service in Albany.

“Begin needed preparations at home or with your vehicle,” forecasters said. “Travel may become difficult, so plan accordingly.”

Although New York City has been spared harsh winter weather this season, a December blizzard in Buffalo that left 4 feet of snow and brought winds that reached 70 mph left at least 40 dead and fueled a debate about the effectiveness of the storm response.

Business has been slow for the snowplowing and landscaping company, Girl Plower, that Gina Dandrea operates with her wife in Rochester, New York. They have gone to Buffalo, almost 80 miles away, to find work.

Their philosophy for every storm? “Prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” Dandrea said. That includes monitoring forecasts, fueling trucks and mobilizing drivers.

A slow snow season such as this winter’s could affect how many residential clients their company can secure in the coming year because the company’s services are contracted before stormy weather.

“For the seasons in the future, people are going to think they don’t need plowing services because this season was a fluke year,” she said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.