Freezing Rain Paralyzes Northeast: Commuters Stranded, 120K Without Power
Freezing rain and lake-effect snow cripple the Northeast, knocking out power to 120,000 and turning NYC commutes into treacherous skating expeditions.
The Storm Arrives
NEW YORK—At 5:12 a.m. Tuesday the first sheet of freezing rain hissed against the windows of Midtown high-rises. By 5:15 the pavement on Eighth Avenue looked lacquered. By 5:30 the city that never sleeps was slipping, skidding, and shutting down.
A Commute Turned Ice Rink
Manhattan’s morning rush became a slow-motion montage of spinning tires and spinning heads. Bus drivers abandoned routes along 42nd Street; riders stepped off and instantly fell.
“It felt like someone turned the whole island into a hockey rink,” said transit worker Carla Owens, nursing a scraped elbow outside Port Authority.
Power Outages Mount
From the Finger Lakes to the Hudson Valley, ice-laden branches snapped like kindling. At peak, 120,000 customers lost electricity. NYSEG crews in orange slickers worked bucket-truck ballets, chainsaws whining against the percussion of cracking limbs.
Lake-Effect Snow Adds Insult
While freezing rain glazed the I-95 corridor, lake-effect snow buried western New York. Orchard Park measured 14 inches in five hours.
- Buffalo schools closed for the third time this month
- Amtrak suspended Empire Service west of Albany
- FlightAware tallied 400+ cancellations at LaGuardia and Newark combined
Why This One Hurts
Meteorologists call it a “warm-nose” event: a 3,000-foot layer of above-freezing air riding atop sub-32-degree ground. Raindrops stay liquid until touchdown, then flash-freeze on contact. The result—glaze ice half an inch thick—adds 500 pounds of weight per power line span.
Climate Context
Dr. Elena Morales at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory notes that while freezing rain is not new, warming Great Lakes amplify lake-effect snow.
“More open water in winter means more moisture, more snow, and more ice storms just to our east,” she explains.
What Happens Next
Temperatures crawl above freezing by Wednesday afternoon, but utility companies warn some outages could linger into Thursday. State DOT has deployed 1,800 plow-salt trucks, yet officials beg drivers to stay home.
“If you don’t need to be out, don’t be,” Governor Kathy Hochul said at an Albany briefing. “This ice doesn’t care how good your tires are.”