Winter Storm Gail dumped more snow on NYC than in all of last winter

Winter Storm Gail dumped more snow on the Big Apple overnight than the city saw in all of last winter — and it was Gotham’s biggest blast since January of 2016, weather experts and Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday morning. 

The New York City area was slammed with nine to 12 inches of snow, and there was a total of 11.5 inches reported in Central Park, Alan Reppert, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, told the Post. 

“It’s really been years since we’ve had this kind of challenge,” de Blasio said during his Thursday morning press conference, adding that the Bronx saw the bulk of it with around 11 inches of snow. 

The rest of the city is in the 5-to-8-inch range, he said. 

The heaviest snowfall changed into a wintry mix early Thursday before tapering off entirely later in the morning. 

Since the bar for snow was set so low last year, those totals were easy to beat, according to Accuweather meteorologist Isaac Longley. 

“Last winter was a very mild winter and we really didn’t see any of those major winter storms, those nor’easters,” Longley told The Post. “So a lot of locations, including New York City, did not really see a lot of snowfall at all. It was a record-breaking year in terms of low snowfall amounts.”

“It’s not completely surprising that we can get more than that in one storm this year, especially a storm of this magnitude,” he added.

The “impressive” storm was “mostly what we expected for the city,” Longley said — though the totals north of the five boroughs exceeded the initial forecast, he said.

“Since this storm ended up tracking farther north than previously expected, the higher snowfall totals were seen farther north of the city,” he said.

“So pretty much the further you go up the Lower Hudson Valley, that’s where you saw the higher totals of 8 to locally 16 inches of snowfall at this point.”

At the height of the storm Wednesday night, a handful of New Yorkers took advantage of the first snowfall of the season — some enjoying snowball fights and another man even walking around with skis and ski poles in the middle of Times Square.

Temperatures in the city were slightly below freezing, at 30 degrees, by the early afternoon, but are set to dip down to the high 20s later in the day, Longley said. 

It will feel “pretty brisk out there” — more like the single digits — with the wind chill factored in, he said. 

New York City will continue to see below freezing temperatures tonight with a low of 21 degrees and wind gusts at 15 miles per hour, according to AccuWeather. 

Reppert added that the skies will be clearing through the evening and that the city will remain dry moving forward. 

“The winds will continue to be somewhat gusty tonight, so any snow can blow and drift tonight. This could cause some slick roads,” Reppert said. “Any snow that melted today could refreeze on any untreated surfaces.”

Reppert said the city will be looking at a high of 32 degrees on Friday, and weekend will be in the low to mid 30s. 

“We could still see some slick spots, especially in the morning,” he said. 

City Emergency Management commissioner Deanne Criswell described the snow totals as less than expected, “but we did get a wet, heavy snow, and so that’s making for some pretty messy conditions out there,” she said.

“One of the positive things about this is that we did not have as many power outages or downed trees as we thought we might have because of the wet snow and the wind,” she added. 

Clean-up options are in good shape, according to city Department of Sanitation commissioner Edward Grayson.

“Throughout the overnight and continuing today, we have basically plowed every street in the city,” he said, adding that plowing and salting operations are continuing.

Plows did not have any significant trouble navigating around outdoor dining structures, according to Grayson. 

Outdoor dining is set to reopen in Manhattan Thursday night, with the re-openings in the outer boroughs to be determined later, according to de Blasio. 

Hizzoner also defended keeping virtual learning in session even though school buildings were closed due to the storm Thursday. 

“Look, our kids need the chance to keep learning,” he said. “They’ve been through so much this year. They’ve lost ground in terms of their learning. We need to help them.”

“There will be a chance after school…kids love being out in the snow, so they can go out and have a great time, some sledding, maybe some snowball fights, whatever they can do after school,” he added. 

But schools will reopen for in-person classes Friday, he said.