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As emergency alerts urged residents to stay indoors, the storm’s peak brought near whiteout conditions, with drifts piling high along sidewalks and cars buried beneath layers of powder. At night, streetlights glowed through the haze, illuminating swirling snow.
Yet for those who dared to step outside, the blizzard offered a portal into a brief winter wonderland. Laughter echoed throughout areas like Times Square and Washington Square Park as impromptu snowball fights broke out. Adventurous New Yorkers strapped on skis and glided down avenues, while others dropped into untouched snowbanks to make angels, their coats dusted in frost.
For hours, the city that never sleeps froze over, wrapped in white, suspended in winter.
Photo by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean Moses
Photo by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean MosesPhoto by Dean Moses
Eighth grader Victoria Mompoint got the scoop on New York City schools closing Monday before any other New York City student, from none other than the mayor himself, who videocalled her on Sunday and posted a recording of the call to make the public announcement.
“ At first, I thought it was going to be like a big Zoom meeting with multiple people. I wasn’t expecting the mayor to call me by himself,” she said. “I was actually very shocked when I seen his face, I was like, ‘Oh my God!’”
But if she could speak to him again, Mompoint says she would have one message: Don’t reopen schools for in-person learning on Tuesday. Mamdani announced at a press conference on Tuesday that it was his plan, telling students, “You can still pelt me with snowballs when you see me.”
“A lot of people are telling me, texting me on Instagram, ‘like, can you call the mayor back?” Mompoint said. ”The conditions are unsafe. It’s not even like kids don’t want to go to school — kids don’t want to wait for a bus that’s going to take probably 30 minutes plus and climb over mountains of snow, and it’s probably not possible that all the snow is going to be cleaned off by the time that kids have to go to school tomorrow morning.”
Mompoint said she believes many kids won’t be able to make it to school on Tuesday. And she said not all kids have the appropriate gear to get through the snow.
“ I personally, I don’t have snow shoes. I have a lot of Jordans, but I don’t wanna mess with my Jordans,” she said.
Mompoint, 14, is a local leader in her own right. She attends Meyer Levin School for the Performing Arts, where she serves as mayor for the Meyer Levin Student Government Association, which is modeled after the city government.
“ Right now we’re working on bills, things that we want to be changed in our school,” she said.
But she has no power when it comes to calling school off due to the weather.
Mompoint said she spent the snow day, the first time schools have been closed since March 2019, playing with a friend in her East Flatbush backyard — first having a snowball fight and then jumping into piles of snow.
Sam Altman challenged critics of A.I.’s water and electricity consumption. Photo by John MacDougall/AFP via Getty Images
Sam Altman is pushing back on mounting criticism over the environmental toll of A.I. The OpenAI chief has dismissed claims about A.I.’s water consumption as “fake” and drawn comparisons between the electricity required to power A.I. systems and the energy it takes to develop human intelligence.
Figures suggesting that tools like ChatGPT consume multiple gallons of water per query are “totally insane” and have “no connection to reality,” Altman said in a Feb. 20 interview with The Indian Express on the sidelines of the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi. Last year, Altman claimed that ChatGPT uses 0.000085 gallons of water per query—roughly one-fifteenth of a teaspoon—though he did not explain how he calculated that figure.
A.I.’s water footprint largely stems from the need for evaporative cooling systems used to keep data center hardware from overheating. But Altman argued that companies like OpenAI are no longer directly managing such cooling processes. Many A.I. developers, he noted, are shifting toward cooling systems that recirculate liquid rather than continually drawing fresh supplies. Meanwhile, tech giants like Microsoft, Meta, Google and Amazon have pledged to replenish more water than they withdraw by 2030.
Even so, data centers continue to drink up water at a rapid pace. Total A.I.-related water consumption for cooling reached 23.7 cubic kilometers in 2025, a 38 percent increase over 2020, and is expected to more than triple over the next 25 years, according to a January report from Xylem. Despite the industry’s pivot to alternative methods, the report found that 56 percent of data center capacity still relies on some form of evaporative cooling.
Altman was more measured when it came to electricity usage. “What is fair, though, is the energy consumption,” he said. “We need to move towards nuclear, wind, and solar very quickly.”
Last April, the International Energy Agency reported that data centers accounted for roughly 1.5 percent of global electricity consumption in 2024. Their power use is rising at a rate more than four times faster than overall electricity demand and is expected to more than double by 2030.
In response, major tech companies are pursuing data center agreements tied to alternative energy sources, including nuclear power, to ease pressure on grids. Altman, who previously led Y Combinator, has personally invested in nuclear ventures such as Oklo, which is developing small-scale nuclear plants, and Helion, which aims to commercialize nuclear fusion.
The OpenAI CEO also argued that critics overlook the energy required to develop human intelligence. “People talk about how much energy it takes to train an A.I. model relative to how much it costs a human to do one inference query,” he said. “But it also takes a lot of energy to train a human—it takes, like, 20 years of life and all the food you eat during that time before you get started.”
A more appropriate comparison, he suggested, would measure the energy used by a fully trained A.I. model to answer a question against that used by a human doing the same task. “Probably A.I. has already caught up on an energy efficiency basis measured that way.”
The remarks quickly sparked debate online over whether such comparisons are appropriate. “He’s saying a really big spreadsheet and a baby are morally equivalent,” wrote Matt Stoller, research director of the American Economic Liberties Project, in a post on X. Sridhar Vembu, founder and chief scientist of software firm Zoho Corporation, also took issue with the OpenAI chief’s statements. A.I. should “quietly recede into the background” instead of dominating our lives, said the billionaire on X. “I do not want to see a world where we equate a piece of technology to a human being.”
NEW JERSEY (WABC) — A travel ban has been lifted for New Jersey as a major blizzard continues to bear down on the Garden State, the first blizzard warning to cover all 21 counties in three decades.
The mandatory travel restriction, which began at 9 p.m. on Sunday, was lifted at noon on Monday, the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management announced.
While the travel ban has ended, motorists are strongly encouraged to avoid unnecessary travel as hazardous conditions persist in some parts of the state. Some roadways remain snow-covered, visibility is limited in some areas and crews continue working to clear roads and restore safe travel, according to state officials.
Nina Pineda reports on blizzard conditions in New Jersey.
Governor Mikie Sherrill declared a statewide state of emergency for the blizzard. By Monday morning, more than a foot of snow had fell as winds continued to whip.
On Sunday night, the governor asked residents to abide by the travel ban.
“This is likely to be the worst storm we have seen since 1996,” Sherrill said. “It is a serious storm. Please take it seriously. Stay inside. Don’t travel tonight.”
Michelle Charlesworth reports on the blizzard from Belmar.
The governor emphasized that this system is dramatically different from the January storm that brought heavy snow last month.
“At its peak, the January storm had about one inch per hour,” Sherrill said. “This will be considerably worse.”
Emergency officials say the combination of wet, heavy snow and powerful winds is expected to cause downed trees, whiteout conditions, drifting, and widespread power outages. Utility crews, contractors, and mutual aid partners, including teams from as far away as Ohio, have been deployed across the state.
JCP&L’s Chris Hoenig talks about NJ weather-related power outages.
Travel Restrictions and Transit Shutdowns
A commercial vehicle ban took effect at 3 p.m. on Sunday on all highways except the New Jersey Turnpike. Speed limits on major roadways were also reduced to 35 mph.
New Jersey Transit suspended buses and light rail service at 6 p.m., and rail service was suspended at 9 p.m.
NJ Transit President and CEO Kris Kolluri gives update on service.
“This storm is too serious to have people and workers out on public transit in the worst of it,” Sherrill said.
Crews from NJDOT, the Turnpike Authority, and local partners are deploying thousands of workers, 4,500 pieces of equipment, and more than 450,000 tons of salt to keep roads clear once the storm moves through.
Still, officials repeated the same message throughout the briefing: stay home.
Acting State Police Superintendent David Sirota said the State Emergency Operations Center is at Level 2 activation and will remain staffed around the clock. Search and rescue teams with high-wheeled vehicles and snowmobiles are on standby.
“Roads can wait. Your life can’t,” Sirota said.
Coastal flooding warnings remain in effect for numerous counties, adding risk to communities near bays, rivers and tidal waterways. Officials reminded residents: “Turn around, don’t drown.”
Residents who need warming centers can go to NJ211.org.
Meanwhile, New Jersey Board of Public Utilities Director Frank Gaffney said utilities are preparing for potentially significant outages statewide.
“Although they are well staffed, they cannot be everywhere,” Gaffney warned. “If you lose power, report it immediately. Don’t wait for your neighbor to do so.”
State offices will be closed Monday. Sherrill urged residents to charge devices, check on elderly neighbors and avoid all travel through Monday.
“Your safety is my top priority,” she said. “We will get through this, but please heed the warnings and stay off the roads.”
The governor says to work from home on Monday if you can.
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Christina Farrell, the newly appointed commissioner of New York City Emergency Management, spoke to ABC7 about the work the city has been doing across multiple agencies to tackle the storm. Farrell said her team has been in the emergency operations center since 6 a.m. Sunday and are prepared to be there through Tuesday evening as the city rides out its first blizzard in a decade.
“We’re coordinating all the impacts and any resources people need to get the city back up and running and keep everybody safe,” she said.
In comparison to the last snowstorm to hit the region earlier this month, Farrell noted that temperatures following the storm aren’t expected to be as cold, which she said was “a relief.” The NYCEM commissioner also acknowledged the increased number of paid snow laborers this time around who were out late last evening shoveling in the midst of the storm.
“They have been shoveling all night. We’re in our second shift of that, so much quicker than the last time,” she said.
The tri-state area was pummeled with a massive blizzard the likes of which we haven’t seen in years!
The total snowfall as of 1 p.m. Monday for Central Park is 19.7 inches — which puts the Blizzard of 2026 at 9th place among the biggest snowstorms in Central Park history!
And, it is not out of the realm of possibility, as data continues to come in, that this storm cracks the top 5!
The National Weather Service compiled the biggest snowstorms — which it describes as being 1 foot or more — registered in Central Park.
The data was compiled from 1869 up to Jan. 1 of this year — with the exception of the data from the Blizzard of 2026.
Among the biggest snowstorms registered is the Blizzard of 96, 30 years ago. That snowstorm, which took place Jan. 7 and 8 in 1996, wreaked havoc across the tri-state when it dumped more than 20 inches of snow, paralyzing transit systems and closing down schools for days.
While the National Weather Service’s list includes the top 28 biggest snowstorms, here are the top 10 as of this afternoon.
Amount (in inches)
Date(s)
1.
27.5
Jan. 22-24, 2016
2.
26.9
Feb.11-12, 2006
3
26.4
Dec.26-27, 1947
4
21.0
March 12-14, 1888
5
20.9
Feb. 25-26, 2010
6
20.2
Jan. 7-8, 1996
7
20.0
Dec. 26-27, 2010
8
19.8
Feb. 16-17, 2003
9
19.7
Feb. 22-23, 2026
10
19.0
Jan. 26-27, 2011
The last spot on the National Weather Service list is No. 28 — a tie between a snowstorm that fell Dec. 30, 2000 and one that took place on Feb. 9-10, 1926.
So, will Blizzard of 2026 crack the top 5? Stay tuned for an updated list as the snow totals come in!
For the complete list of biggest snowstorms registered in Central Park, click here.
ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — The U.S. Postal Service is reminding Upstate New Yorkers to keep walkways, sidewalks, and approaches to mailboxes clear from snow and ice. Keeping paths clear help mail carriers stay safe from slipping and any potential injuries. A storm along the East Coast began Sunday evening. The nor’easter brought gusty winds and […]
As the head of our state’s leading public health agency, I track a seemingly endless list of threats to the health, safety and wellbeing of New Yorkers. Some come from out of nowhere – disease outbreaks or distant wildfires that threaten our air quality – but some are stubbornly persistent. Every February we renew our focus on one of those areas as we mark American Heart Month.
This year, that comes as our State happens to be celebrating a major milestone: February 19th is the 125th anniversary of the creation of the New York State Department of Health. By creating one of the nation’s first state health departments, lawmakers and elected officials in 1901 were taking a leadership role in public health that continues to this day.
Take the issue of heart health: Just last month, Governor Hochul unveiled a budget proposal that makes major investments in our fight against cardiovascular disease. Healthy hearts start with healthy diets, which is why Governor Hochul included over $100 million for nutrition programs, food banks and food pantries in the Executive Budget.
We also want to be ready when the worst happens. That’s why the Governor’s budget includes proposals to strengthen cardiac emergency readiness across New York State – like $3.2 million to establish regional training hubs and ensure communities know how to use Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) and support new, scalable approaches to cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) education; and New York’s first statewide AED registry with the precise location of every AED across the state, enabling emergency dispatchers to direct individuals to the nearest device, saving critical time during cardiac events.
To be sure, over the last 125 years we have made major progress. While the percentage of adults who report having a stroke, heart attack or coronary heart disease has remained relatively unchanged over the past decade, investments in public health means cardiovascular disease is no longer a death sentence.
Moreover, we know the risk of developing cardiovascular disease can be reduced with certain lifestyle changes – like never starting to smoke or quitting smoking, not drinking or reducing alcohol intake, increasing physical activity and eating well. It’s also important to manage blood pressure and cholesterol levels and maintain routine visits with a primary care provider. Successful public health campaigns have tackled all of these issues.
But our work is not done.
Cardiovascular disease remains a leading cause of death around the world and here at home in New York. Our research shows that over 1.25 million adults in New York State report that they have cardiovascular disease, meaning they have experienced a heart attack, angina, coronary heart disease or stroke, and an estimated 4.2 million adult New Yorkers report being told by a health professional they have high blood pressure, a leading cause of cardiovascular disease.
Social drivers of health such as lack of access to healthy food, lack of safe places for physical activity, lack of access to affordable medical care, and lack of housing stability contribute to disparities in the burden of high blood pressure and cardiovascular risk. High blood pressure is more prevalent among American Indian/Alaska Native and Black, non-Hispanic adults.
Data shows we are on the right track – rates of high blood pressure control among adults in New York are higher compared to the national average. Ensuring those suffering from these conditions continue to have access to treatment will be vital to continue this progress.
With the support of Governor Hochul, we are working with our health care partners across the state to ensure every New Yorker has the ability to protect themselves and their family from cardiovascular disease.
Season two kicks off with a beautiful detour into the life of Annie Clay (Shailene Woodley), an apocalypse survivor living in the ruins of Graceland. Photo: Ser Baffo/Disney
Fire up your favorite emo cover of an ‘80s rock anthem because Paradise is back, baby. Let’s begin with a quick refresher as to where we left off with your favorite bunker show: A super volcano underneath the Antarctic ice shelf erupted and caused both worldwide tsunamis — Australia was gone first, I’m sorry to say — and a massive ash cloud that blocked out the sun. On top of Mother Nature’s chaos, as the world began to collapse, several governments got trigger-happy with their missiles, and it looked like everyone was about to go nuclear, because sure, why not? It’s the end of the world as we know it … until President Cal Bradford steps in.
In a game-changing twist, we learn that at the last minute, Cal uses a super-secret failsafe that fries every electric circuit on earth and thus kills all the nuclear warheads before they can detonate, while also leaving any non-bunker survivors without any electricity. Because oh yes! There are survivors outside the not-so-secret Colorado bunker! And, as our evil billionaire Samantha “Sinatra” Redmond reveals to Secret Service Agent Xavier Collins, his wife, whom he had believed died after watching a nuke on track to blow up Atlanta, is one of the survivors, and she’s been using a radio to try and get in touch with him. Once Xavier and fellow agent (and Cal’s secret girlfriend) Robinson have solved the mystery of the president’s murder — it was the fake librarian with a vendetta after the love of his life got sick and died while they were helping construct the bunker! — Xavier gets on a plane, escapes the bunker, and goes to get his girl.
Even just skimming the surface, there’s a whole lot to remember. But guess what? You actually don’t need to remember most of it because the season-two premiere has almost nothing to do with our main players from the bunker (until it totally does). In fact, we spend the entire hour with new characters and we trade in the Colorado bunker for a much cooler place to hunker down while the world ends: Graceland. I know what your first question must be: Does this mean that instead of ‘80s rock, we get emo covers of Elvis Presley songs? You betcha. So many emo Elvis covers.
Instead of picking up where Paradise left off, “Graceland” takes us back in time and introduces us to Annie Clay (played by Shailene Woodley) and proceeds to show us what happened to her before, during, and after the apocalypse. I’m sure some people might be frustrated that we aren’t hopping directly back into the main action of the series, but if I’m being honest, it took me maybe five minutes to be completely invested in Annie’s story. This is partially because I’ve lived through Dan Fogelman and Sterling K. Brown’s other joint venture, This Is Us, so I’ve become accustomed to detours with random characters who eventually tie into the main story. But mostly, “Graceland” works because of Woodley’s magnetic performance.
When we first meet Annie, she’s a poor teenager taking care of her ailing mother, at one time a successful doctor who was eventually felled by her mental health issues. The one thing that seems to help her mother is Elvis Presley. His portrait is on the mantle. Annie goes on the tour at Graceland over and over and over again to tell her mother about it. After her mother dies, Annie’s on her own. We see her in med school. She’s smarter than her colleagues. She’d be an excellent doctor. Unfortunately, she has debilitating panic attacks. The day she drops out of med school, she finds herself crying in her car outside the gates of Graceland. We’ve all been there. When security guard Gayle comes upon her and hears her story, she takes pity on her and eventually Annie becomes a tour guide at Graceland. Elvis’s safest place in the world has now become hers. And that’s before she turns it into her own personal fallout shelter and post-apocalypse living space.
One day, Annie’s giving a tour when she notices everyone checking their phones and freaking the fuck out. This is it, the end of the world. We catch glimpses of news reports we saw in season one, and we hear Cal’s big speech. Annie is smart enough to know not to waste time panicking. Instead, she grabs Gayle and the two gather as many supplies as they can find. Food from the Visitor Center, blankets from the Presleys personal collection upstairs, and Annie even breaks into the case displaying one of Elvis’s guns. At the end of the world, she might need to be armed. They’re going to hunker down in the TV room, and it all seems like a good plan until Gayle takes a tumble down the stairs and breaks her leg.
Paradise speeds through Annie and Gayle’s first 45 days in the TV room. Gayle’s injury is a doozy — Annie has reset her leg, but there is an infection, and Annie doesn’t have much to work with. The huge ash cloud has settled in, and it’s freezing, but Annie refuses to set a fire in the fireplace lest the smoke alert others that someone’s in Graceland. From the glimpses they get of what’s going on out in the streets — looting, fires, violence — that’s a smart move. Annie tries to keep Gayle’s spirits up with her Elvis impersonation, as one does. On Day 45, Gayle isn’t cold anymore, and Annie knows exactly what that means — she holds her only friend in the world until she dies and then she buries her in the Presley family plot before finally letting out every emotion she’s been feeling with one gut-wrenching scream. Annie is truly alone at the end of the world.
Almost two years after the eruption — it’s Day 689 — the sun returns. Annie can breathe again. She can also start to grow things, which is so nice because how many cans of beans has this woman eaten and is her GI tract okay? Annie is alone, but things could be so much worse than spending your day reading in the Jungle Room and mainlining Bush’s Best; She’s tucked away safely and no one seems to bother her.
And then someone bothers her. One day, Annie spots a group of six armed men at the gates. She grabs her gun and hides up by Elvis’s handy two-way mirror. But while these guys, led by a scruffy young guy named Link, pull Annie out of her hiding spot, they don’t seem to want to hurt her. They want to know where Elvis’s collection of vintage cars is. Link tries to talk to Annie and prove he isn’t a bad guy, and just as you think it might be working, Annie slams his head with something very heavy and makes a run for the TV room. Her safe space. She locks herself in there for three days. On that third day, the men are still in the house, but they are also cooking something that smells amazing and so she leaves the room. Finally, although still hesitant to let anyone in, Annie can see that these guys don’t want to hurt her. In fact, they’re just a big bunch of nerds. Link explains that he was in Louisville working at an REI store when the volcano erupted, and he wisely stocked up on sleeping bags and coats. He eventually ran into Geiger, an older guy who decided someone needed to travel around the country to each of the 94 nuclear power plants and attempt to shut them down before a disastrous meltdown could occur. Nerdiest of the nerds — they call him Urkel — explains that because of the ash cloud, the earth’s temperature has dropped twenty degrees. He also has a theory about a secret device that must have knocked all the power out. His buddies brush it off, but my fingers are crossed that one day he’ll learn he was dead right and he’ll drop a sarcastic “did I do that?” and we’ll all laugh about it. We need some laughs!
While hearing about the catastrophic changes to the environment and the unfathomable death toll — Link estimates two-thirds of the U.S. population has been wiped out — these are all things we knew or, at least, could have guessed. One of the most important pieces of info dropped by this group, however, is that when they show up at Graceland, it’s been about three years since the volcano erupted. This, of course, means that Annie’s timeline has caught up with where we were in season one of Paradise.
Link and his team assure Annie that they’ll be out of her hair soon enough, and slowly, she begins to warm up to them. She fixes Link’s broken wrist, and the team takes apart some of Elvis’s cars to use the parts elsewhere. She and Link talk about the stars and the falling satellites, about his terrible beard, and he shows her his pre-beard student ID card. (The fact that he went to Caltech tells us he’s probably more than just a sales clerk.) On the eve of the team’s departure, they all have a fancy dinner together in the dining room. Annie puts on one of the Presleys’ dresses. Link cuts back his beard. They totally want to fuck. At dinner, they play “one thing you miss/one thing you don’t,” and it takes Annie awhile, since so much of life before was hard for her, but what she misses most is giving tours here at Graceland. And so, they ask her for a tour. Eventually, Annie and Link pair off and things get hot and heavy in the Jungle Room. As someone who has been on the Graceland tour, I’m assuming this is a new addition.
It’s a gorgeous scene that goes from the two of them talking, of Annie opening up, and then breaking down into sobs as he holds her close to him, to them in bed together. The chemistry between Shailene Woodley and Thomas Doherty is off the charts, and I buy everything they’re selling. I can’t shake the moment when Annie weeps into his shoulder. She’s been holding everything in for so long to survive, and finally being seen, being touched again after three years, is the push to just release it all. And he doesn’t back away from it. He understands it from the jump. Maybe this isn’t the speculative fiction thriller from season one, but I’m down with basking in a little story about human connection for an hour.
The episode isn’t solely a reflective one. There are some important developments. In the morning, Link and his team are headed up to St. Louis — in order to avoid the apparently rough parts of Arkansas — and then out to Colorado … to find a secret bunker they know is out there that has enough power that could restart the world. He also mentions something dangerous in the bunker, but can’t explain further. He wants Annie to “come restart the world” with him. But in the morning, Annie has once again locked herself in the TV room. She is too scared to leave her safe place, even for Link. Link, who is suffering from a mysterious nose bleed and headaches by the way, begs her to open the door but she won’t, and he doesn’t have time to wait. Geiger comes and grabs him and reminds him how urgent it is to get to that bunker and to find and “kill Alex.” Are you also trying to list the names of everyone we know in the bunker? I cannot think of an Alex. Is “Alex” a person at all? When they leave, and Annie finally comes out of the room, she finds that Link has left her gear, a map, and a note that promises he’ll come back for her.
This promise sustains Annie as she remains at Graceland alone once again and — surprise! — turns out to be pregnant. This promise is probably why, when a now VERY pregnant Annie hears a plane crash and sees that the wreckage and pilot are in the rough parts of Arkansas, she assumes it must be Link coming back for her, and she hops on her horse to rescue him. Out alone in the woods, Annie comes across that wrecked plane and its unconscious pilot, but it is not Link — it’s Xavier.
New Yorkers across the city let out a collective groan Sunday as the city got walloped by a blizzard, just as the filthy ice from last month’s snowstorm was finally melting away.
Everyone had different ways of coping with the grim forecast. Some hoarded groceries, picking the shelves clean. Others, like so many since time immemorial, headed to the bar.
Around a dozen people and a dog drank (water) at the dimly lit Ridgewood watering hole Windjammer Sunday afternoon, as the snow began to accumulate.
“It just sucks for a lot of people that can’t work in the city and they can’t get paid time off, it just sucks for all of us,” Sydney Buck, 33, said. ”I’m coping by playing pool and having a couple shots of jager, that’s what I’m doing.”
Buck, a private chef, said she’d had to cancel a pop-up up event for her company “Buckwild” on Tuesday because deliveries fell through. She estimated the event would’ve brought in $2,000.
She said this had been the harshest winter she’d endured over 13 years in the city. It was even worse, she said, than the 2016 blizzard when she lost electricity. That storm dumped 27.5 inches of snow in Central Park.
Private chef Sydney Buck threw back a drink at Windjammer before heading home to make dinner and ride out the storm.
Catalina Gonella
That still could not compare to this winter of New York discontent, which began with 14 inches of snow on Jan. 26. What followed was a miserable three-week stretch of below-freezing temperatures. The snow stuck around, blocking crosswalks and bus stops and narrowing sidewalks. The social fabric began to fray. For some inexplicable reason, dog owners stopped picking up their pets’ poop. Trash accumulated because alternate side parking was suspended and sanitation workers were busy tending to the snow, which became more disgusting by the day.
Buck said her next stop was the grocery store, where she planned to stock up on ingredients to make cozy dishes like soups and bolognese.
“If you want to do something to pass this time, befriend your local bar and also stock up on some things that you feel comfortable cooking and you like cooking — don’t order food right now,” she said.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani would likely agree with her decision to cook at home. He instituted a travel ban for non-essential driving that prompted DoorDash to suspend deliveries.
A few snow-covered blocks away at the German pub Gottscheer Hall, Ridgewood resident Madison Davidson, 31, said she had already stocked up on groceries but wanted to get out of the house.
“ I think it’s unfortunate that the last [storm] hadn’t completely dissipated with the trash mounds. But I mean, I’m from Ohio so snow isn’t that big of a deal,” she said. “ I just face it head on.”
Her partner John Irving, 31, took comfort in the forecast after the blizzard has passed.
Drinkers at Gottscheer in Ridgewood.
Catalina Gonella
“I like it while it’s still falling, as long as there aren’t lingering piles accumulating garbage,” he said. “I mostly just feel like it kind of highlighted how much trash there was everywhere to begin with so hopefully it doesn’t happen again. But I’m kind of resigned to it at this point.”
The rest of the week shows high temperatures above freezing, meaning the snow shouldn’t turn into a revolting block of ice, garbage and turds this time around.
Glendale resident Willy Wilhelm, 61, said he hoped enough snow fell so that he didn’t have to go to work on Monday.
“ I don’t want it to stick around like the last time. But it’s gonna be warm by Wednesday. I think by next week, no matter what we get, it’ll all be gone,” he said.
He noted that daylight saving time is coming up on March 8.
“I see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
His way of preparing for the storm? Throwing back a cold one at Gottscheer.
“This way when I get home, I’ll be all nice and relaxed, so I tell my son, ‘bust out that shovel and take care of all of this out there,’” he said.
NEW YORK (WABC) — A major winter storm is impacting mass transit agencies and services across the Tri-State area, as most of the region braces for the potential of over a foot of snow.
MTA services, including New York City subway trains and buses, the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North, New Jersey Transit and ferries have all announced major changes that will impact commuters through at least Monday.
You can find a full list of updates to mass transit services below.
New York City Emergency Management Commissioner Christina Farrell joined Eyewitness News with an update on storm preparations in the city.
MTA SERVICES
Subways C train subway service is no longer running in New York City Sunday night. The A train has been running local due to the storm. It’s the same route as the C train as both lines run on Eighth Avenue.
Modified service continues, above ground subway lines could be further modified later Sunday night.
Express service will run principally on the local tracks and starting Sunday evening, modified service will be in effect in the Rockaways, with shuttle trains running between Euclid Avenue and the Rockaways and serving all stations.
Buses Routes subject to detours and curtailments beginning at midnight. Customers can expect express bus trips cancellations, based on road conditions.
Longer accordion-style buses have been replaced with 40-foot standard buses equipped with chained wheels.
LIRR
The LIRR will temporarily suspend all service starting at 1:00 a.m. until weather conditions allow for safe resumption.
Officials said the suspension allows crews to focus on snow-clearing efforts from the blizzard, which includes projected extreme velocity winds on eastern Long Island, to provide safe and reliable service when possible.
Starting at 7:00 p.m. Sunday, service will be reduced to hourly on the Port Jefferson, Port Washington branches, and half-hourly on the Babylon Branch.
Long Island Rail Road President Rob Free joined Eyewitness News to discuss the decision to suspend service proactively beginning at 1 a.m. on Monday.
Metro North
Metro-North is operating normally. Monday will be hourly service schedule, with weekend schedules in place on the branch lines. The Hudson Rail Link connecting bus will be suspended.
The shuttle buses that have been substituting for the Haverstraw-Ossining Ferry due to river ice will also be suspended.
NEW JERSEY TRANSIT
NJ Transit rail service will be suspended at 9 p.m. In addition, the agency previously announced bus, Light Rail and Access Link Services will be suspended at 6 p.m.
Service will resume Monday when possible.
MORE MASS TRANSIT SERVICES
Staten Island Railway: Weekend schedule Monday
Staten Island Ferry: Switches to an hourly schedule at midnight. Half hour service will be offered starting at 6 a.m.
NYC Ferry: Will end system operations at 5 p.m. Sunday, due to white out conditions.
Bee-Line buses and Paratransit: Service suspended through 2 p.m. Monday, Feb. 23. Westchester County will monitor road conditions and provide updates to the public as necessary.
NICE Bus: Suspending 9 p.m. Sunday to 9 a.m. Monday.
Suffolk County Transit: Suspending 4 p.m. through Monday. Service scheduled to resume Tuesday with an expected delayed start at 10 a.m.
CitiBike: Service will halt at 8 pm. Sunday.
TRAVEL BANS ISSUED
Travel bans will take effect across parts of the Tri-State area as the weekend blizzard moves in.
New York City New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a state of emergency for the city and a travel ban beginning at 9 p.m. tonight, and ending at 12 p.m. Monday.
New York Local bans will be going into effect Sunday night, all of Long Island will be in effect from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. starting Sunday night, and Westchester County for 9 p.m. to 10 a.m., the governor said.
Suffolk County Suffolk County Executive Romaine has issued a travel ban for Suffolk County beginning 9 p.m. Sunday through 9 p.m. Monday. The ban does not apply to essential workers and plow operators.
New Jersey A travel ban will take effect at 9 p.m. Sunday, and end 7 a.m. on Monday. All non-exempt vehicles are prohibited from operating on state, county, municipal, and interstate roadways during this period. The New Jersey Turnpike is exempt from this restriction. Violators may face penalties under state law.
Connecticut Gov. Lamont declared a State of Emergency earlier Sunday and signed an emergency order prohibiting vehicles from traveling on highways across the state, which will take effect starting at 5 p.m. tonight.
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Photo Credit: Craig Dudek
Basketball fans can go all in on the NBA or college basketball with the latest DraftKings promo code offer. New players can turn a $5 bet on any game into a $200 bonus. Click here to start the registration process.
There is no shortage of options available for first-time players this weekend. Set up a new account, grab this $200 bonus and check out all the different ways to bet on the NBA and college basketball. Let’s take a closer look at the details of this exclusive offer.
DraftKings Promo Code: Bet $5, Get $200 Bonus
With the Celtics and Lakers set to clash this Sunday, eligible bettors can claim a substantial welcome bonus to use on the game. By placing a $5 wager on this matchup—or any other NBA game—new users can unlock $200 in bonus bets if their wager settles as a win.
Below are the key details for the current sign-up offer:
DraftKings Promo Code
No Code Needed
New DraftKings User Offer
Bet $5, Get $200 If Your Bet Wins
Bonus Last Verified On
February 22, 2026
For NBA fans tuning in to watch the Boston Celtics take on the Los Angeles Lakers, DraftKings Sportsbook offers a high-stakes incentive to join the action. New DraftKings customers who register and place a qualifying wager of $5 or more on this matchup—or any other market with odds of -500 or longer—can secure $300 in bonus bets. Crucially, this welcome offer is not guaranteed; the qualifying bet must settle as a win to trigger the bonus payout.
If the initial $5+ wager is successful, the $300 bonus is credited to the user’s account in the form of twelve (12) separate $25 bonus bets. This distribution structure allows bettors to spread their action across multiple games throughout the week rather than risking the entire bonus on a single event. However, players must act efficiently, as these bonus bets expire seven days (168 hours) after issuance.
NBA Saturday Night Matchups
With three games on the schedule for Sunday, bettors have distinct options ranging from a classic rivalry to high-scoring inter-conference battles. Below are the current lines and totals from DraftKings:
Matchup
Spread
Total
Moneyline
Boston Celtics @ Los Angeles Lakers
BOS -1.5
228.5
BOS -125 / LAL +105
Philadelphia 76ers @ Minnesota Timberwolves
MIN -8.5
238.5
MIN -345 / PHI +275
New York Knicks @ Chicago Bulls
NYK -10.5
231.5
NYK -455 / CHI +350
The day’s headline matchup sees the Lakers hosting the Celtics as slight 1.5-point underdogs. The Lakers’ offense has been powered by the high-volume production of Luka Dončić, who is averaging 33.0 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 8.6 assists per game this season. He is supported by LeBron James (21.7 PPG, 7.2 APG). They face a Boston team led by Jaylen Brown (29.2 PPG) that ranks second in the league in offensive rating (116.8).
For those looking at totals, the Sixers vs. Timberwolves game carries the highest number on the board at 238.5. Minnesota boasts a high-powered offense averaging 119.7 points per game, driven by Anthony Edwards (29.5 PPG). They face a Philadelphia squad featuring Tyrese Maxey (28.9 PPG) and Joel Embiid (26.6 PPG). Meanwhile, the Knicks are heavy 10.5-point favorites against Chicago, with Jalen Brunson (27.0 PPG) looking to exploit a Bulls defense allowing 116.4 points per night.
How to Claim This DraftKings Promo Code Offer
Activating the current welcome offer is a straightforward process that does not require manually entering a specific promo code. Eligible new users can follow the steps below to sign up and place their qualifying bet:
Click the links on this page to reach the DraftKings Sportsbook registration page. No promo code is necessary to claim this offer.
Create and register an account by entering standard personal information, such as your legal name, address, and date of birth, to verify your identity.
Deposit at least $5 into your new account using one of the secure payment methods provided by the sportsbook.
Place a wager of $5 or more on the Celtics vs. Lakers matchup or any other qualifying NBA market.
Root for your bet to win. If your $5+ wager settles as a win, you will receive $300 in bonus bets in addition to your cash winnings.
Gracie Abrams and Paul Mescal. Getty Images for BAFTA
After three awards shows, all in Los Angeles, Hollywood’s A-list is heading across the pond. Yes, it’s time for the BAFTAs, the annual ceremony that honors the best in British and international cinema. Presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the BAFTAs are once again taking place at Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank Centre tonight, Feb. 22, but with a new host. This year, Alan Cumming is taking over duties from David Tennant, who hosted the ceremony for the past two years.
Here’s everything to know about the next Olympics after Milan Cortina:
When are the next Olympics?
While the next Winter Games will transpire in 2030 four years from now, the next Summer Olympics is set for 2028 — four years after the Paris Games.
Where will the next Olympics be?
The next Olympics will be headed to Southern California for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games. The action will run from Friday, July 14 to Sunday, July 30.
Which venues will be used at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics?
Events will be spread out through over 15 zones in the Los Angeles area, including Long Beach, Inglewood, Venice and more.
Not every event will be held in California, though, as stadiums in New York, San Jose, Columbus, Nashville, San Diego and St. Louis will host soccer games.
The full list of official venues is on LA28’s website here.
The LA28 team is already working on their own sustainability plans after Paris hosted the most climate-conscious Summer Olympics yet. National climate reporter Chase Cain talks with LA28’s head of sustainability about their climate goals for 2028.
Previous Summer Olympics in the U.S.
The 2028 Games will be the fifth Summer Olympics held in the U.S. Here are the previous four locations:
NBC will remain the broadcasting home for the Summer Olympics in 2028, as television and streaming rights in the U.S. will be with NBCUniversal’s platforms.
Future Summer Olympics locations
Beyond 2028, only the 2032 Summer Olympics have a confirmed host: Brisbane, Australia.
Brisbane was picked Wednesday to host the 2032 Olympics
Heavy snowfall is expected to begin in New York City Sunday afternoon, and meteorologists now say we could see up to two feet of snow.
According to the National Weather Service’s latest forecast, New Yorkers could expect between 16 and 24 inches of snow starting at 1 p.m. Sunday to 6 p.m. Monday. The forecast also said wind gusts could get as high as 60 miles per hour, with the heaviest snow and strongest winds overnight.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said that Department of Sanitation workers were already up and ready to salt roads throughout the city and dispatch plow trucks to clear the road from snow. According to Mamdani’s office, the department has prepped over 2,200 vehicles and 700 salt spreaders.
The mayor is expected to make a decision on moving Monday’s public school classes to remote learning by noon Sunday.
Meanwhile the Mamdani administration and the National Weather Service are warning New Yorkers of the dangers of the upcoming blizzard. Meteorologists said there will likely be whiteout conditions, meaning visibility could drop below a quarter of a mile due to the blowing snow.
The strong winds could also cause random power outages if tree branches fall on power lines.
Officials said New Yorkers should restrict travel to emergencies only.
“I’m urging all New Yorkers to look out for yourselves and your neighbors: stay home if you can, stay safe, and stay connected through Notify NYC for real-time updates,” Mamdani said in a statement.
A “code blue” was put into effect Saturday, meaning when temperatures drop below 32 degrees, the city will guarantee shelter for homeless New Yorkers. Mamdani said the homeless outreach teams will “expand their efforts” through Tuesday morning, including deploying 22 warming buses, 11 hospital spaces and 13 school locations.
“Our city doesn’t wait for a crisis to act — we organize, we prepare, and we take care of each other. As this snowstorm approaches, our administration is mobilizing every resource available to keep New Yorkers safe, informed, and warm,” Mamdani said in a statement. “Our agencies will be here plowing streets, salting roads, and opening warming centers in every borough because public safety is a public responsibility.”
Perhaps a Carnegie Hall archivist has recorded how often an evening-long work of brand-new chamber music, performed in the big auditorium, has prompted a standing ovation, but I would guess almost never. I was afraid that Kevin Puts’s Emily — No Prisoner Be, for mezzo-soprano and string trio, would get swallowed up in the hall’s expanse. The sight of microphones increased my skepticism, because amplification can only help so much if the music is too small or the space too big. I didn’t need to worry: As soon as the first notes sounded, it became clear that Emily is both intimate and symphonic. And mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, the star whose name alone was enough to fill the house on February 19, skipped back and forth across that expressive chasm with ease, accompanied by the string trio Time for Three.
Puts’s cycle of two dozen Emily Dickinson songs, plus a couple of interludes, begins with “They Shut me Up in Prose,” a poem whose first four words evoke rage and resistance against a darkly tyrannical force.
They shut me up in Prose —
As when a little Girl
They put me in the Closet —
Because they liked me “still” —
Stillness is imprisonment, but confinement is pointless against the immense, liberating force of Dickinson’s poetic mind. She has only to think it, and, “easy as a Star,” she can “look down upon Captivity — And laugh.” It’s a powerful statement of intellectual and artistic freedom, and Puts prepares it with a furious trembling of strings, like the buzzing bees that populate other Dickinson poems. DiDonato enters with a pop-song-worthy hook, and the players double as vocalists, surrounding the tune with a halo of close harmony. But it takes less than a minute for her voice, like the poet’s restless mind, to take flight and spin off into the heavens.
The second song is an introvert’s anthem, “I Was the Slightest in the House,” and Puts sets it as a hushed reflection, almost a diary entry in musical form. DiDonato has one of the opera world’s great murmurs, a soft, warm filament of sound that stays perfectly clear down to the lowest reach of her register and the quietest pianissimo until it simply disappears. When this diva with a big personality, who makes her living lobbing arias to the upper balconies of an overscale opera house, utters the words “ I could not bear to live—aloud— / The Racket shamed me so—” you believe without hesitation that she is a lover of quietude.
Those first two numbers stake out the territory for the rest of the work, which lasts about 75 minutes and lingers on many shades of human experience and musical reference: the Straussian exuberance of “I Dwell in Possibility,” the ravishing depressiveness of “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain,” the Sondheimian wryness of (and millinery references) of “I Tie My Hat – I Crease My Shawl.” That makes Emily sound like a derivative pastiche, though, and it’s not, because Puts’s prosody and melodic gift both keep it fresh.
He has a knack for translating Dickinson’s rhythms into music. Her mixture of plain New England speech and jerky hesitations, of the vernacular and the gnomic, have made her abidingly popular with American composers, who have churned out thousands of settings. But those qualities rarely fit a composer’s style as well as they do Puts’s. His score slips back and forth between hymnlike simplicity and operatic virtuosity. It feels like you could learn to sing along, but you almost certainly can’t.
If Dickinson has a fine collaborator in Puts, the composer has equal affinity with the performers. He wrote the role of Virginia Woolf in his opera The Hours for DiDonato, and the triple concertoContactfor Time for Three. Inevitably, their strengths and quirks seeped into the composer’s head so that the musicians helped shape the score instead of just carrying out its instructions.
The director, Andrew Staples, placed the performers on a stage within a stage, a stylized version of Dickinson’s bedroom in Amherst, Massachusetts with sheer curtains billowing and lighting that traces the bright and darkling recesses of the soul. The production works, mostly because DiDonato and Time for Three all know how to use it, moving without awkwardness, bringing the audience closer to the music instead of creating a distracting barrier. For an encore, DiDonato conscripted the audience into singing the lilting refrain of the final song, “No Prisoner Be,” while the musicians gradually fell silent. This is your music, now, she was saying: Cherish it.
When TheWall Street Journal asked White what connects MAGA and the UFC, he gave a one-word answer: “Testosterone.”
Okay, sure. Also, Trump and White have been friends for years, and their business and political interests are deeply intertwined.
In the early aughts, mixed martial arts was banned in most states and the UFC was struggling to book big venues. (A few years earlier, Senator John McCain had famously denounced the sport as “human cockfighting.”) But Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City agreed to host UFC events and celebrity businessman attended them, giving the organization exposure and legitimacy.
“Nobody took us seriously,” White has said repeatedly. “Except Donald Trump.”
As the UFC’s popularity skyrocketed and Trump entered politics, the two men occasionally supported each other’s ventures (for example, one of the UFC’s biggest stars appeared on TheCelebrity Apprentice, and White spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention). But Trump made White and the UFC central to his 2024 bid in an attempt to attract young male voters. White connected Trump with “manosphere” podcasters and influencers, and the CEO played a visible role in the campaign, speaking at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally and his 2024 victory party.
White isn’t wrong about “testosterone” — or, rather, hypermasculinity — being a big part of all this. As Karim Zidan explained in The Guardian, UFC White House is the “natural climax of a partnership in which the UFC has become the stage for Maga mythology”:
Fascist Italy used rallies, parades and sports events to project strength and unity. Sports, especially combat sports, were used as tools to cultivate Mussolini’s ideal masculinity and portray Italy as a strong and powerful nation. Similarly, Trump has relied on the UFC to project his tough-guy image, and to celebrate his brand of nationalistic masculinity. From name-dropping champions who endorse him to suggesting a tournament that would pit UFC fighters against illegal immigrants, Trump has repeatedly found ways to make UFC-style machismo a part of his political brand.
A blizzard warning has been issued for all five boroughs of New York City, Long Island, and much of NJ, as a classic nor’easter threatens to dump heavy snow and strong winds on our area.
A blizzard warning is issued when snow accumulations are expected between 13 and 18 inches and winds are expected to gust as high as 55 mph. Whiteout conditions are expected.
Forecasts show 12-18 inches of snow expected for the five boroughs, along with central Jersey and Nassau County. Some on Long Island may get as much as two feet.
States of emergency are in effect for both New York and New Jersey
Major transit changes are likely. MTA and NJ Transit officials are expected to give an update on potential transit totals later today
What was, as of Thursday, looking like a storm that would bring 1-3 inches of snow for much of the tri-state has escalated to up to 2 feet for some, triggering the first blizzard warnings in nearly a decade.
The timing of the winter storm is expected to wreak havoc on roads and impact mass transit service, potentially shutting down school systems amid snowfall rates of 1-2 inches per hour. Travel may be life-threatening.
NEW YORK (WABC) — Saturday was the calm before the storm as temperatures reached nearly 50 degrees before a powerful storm is expected to deliver a blizzard to the Tri-State Area.
Governor Kathy Hochul declared a State of Emergency ahead of the snow. Local officials are urging people to stay off the roads, especially as snow picks up in the afternoon.”
A Blizzard Warning goes into effect Sunday as heavy snow, strong winds and whiteout conditions are expected, with the worst impacts happening overnight into Monday.
Once again, New York State is in the crosshairs of a very dangerous, fast-moving, potentially life-threatening winter storm.
“DSNY has already begun pre-snow operations, preparing equipment, mounting plows and chains and over 2200 vehicles and loading up more than 700 salt spreaders,” Mamdani said.
Starting Sunday, the city will also deploy more than 1,000 emergency snow shovelers.
In an unprecedented early activation, the city has brought in mechanical snow-clearing equipment ahead of the snowfall. It also teamed up with Lyft to expand snow-clearing crews to free Citi Bike stations after the storm.
“We are looking to utilize every tool that was successful last time around and then utilize new tools as well,” says Mamdani.
The city has activated a Code Blue, gearing its warming buses and warming spaces across the boroughs. Officials are urging people to stay off the roads, but if you must go out, expect delays on the roads and the rails.
In preparation for snow accumulations, the New York Department of Sanitation is hiring last-minute shovelers. You have to visit any DSNY garage Sunday between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Mayor Mamdani says he will make the call on whether New York City schools will remain open on Sunday afternoon.
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