New York finally ends record 700-plus days without snow

New York on Tuesday finally ended a record streak of more than 700 days without measurable snowfall, with a thin layer of white powder covering Central Park and other parts of America's most populous city.

"It's been 701 days since Central Park last recorded an inch of snow on a calendar day," the National Weather Service announced on X, formerly Twitter.

Since midnight, an inch (2.5 centimeters) had fallen at an official measuring point in Central Park, the NWS said, adding that a total of 1.4 inches of accumulation were logged since the storm began on Monday.

"The streak has ended!" it proclaimed.

Other parts of the city like Brooklyn were clearing the white stuff from sidewalks after a long holiday weekend. In the northern suburbs, some schools were closed and public transport had slight delays.

New York -- home to 8.5 million people -- hadn't seen perceptible snow since early 2022.

In other areas of New York state, like the Buffalo area, snowfall is a more regular and serious occurrence. At Christmas 2022, northern and western New York got more than four feet (one meter) of snow, and dozens of people died in the region.

The frequency, intensity and unpredictability of snowfall in the United States, as in other parts of the world, has been affected by climate change.