How Mamdani Learned From the First Snowstorm and Prepared for the Second

Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Supported by SKIP ADVERTISEMENT How Mamdani Learned From the First Snowstorm and Prepared for the Second As the forecast rapidly worsened, Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged his staff to implement new policies and emphasized the need to communicate aggressively about the snow. Listen to this article · 5:36 min Learn more Share full article By Dana Rubinstein Feb. 25, 2026, 3:00 a.m. ET Some storm forecasts develop predictably, their general contours discernible from five days out. Others take shape almost all at once, as disparate weather models converge on a likely, perilous outcome. That is what happened in New York City late last week, as officials watched forecasts escalate from predictions of a “potential offshore storm” on Thursday afternoon to projections of “impactful snowfall” on Friday morning to a Saturday pre-dawn warning of a blizzard. “It just kept going up and up and up,” Christina Farrell, the city’s new emergency management commissioner, recalled on Tuesday, as snow plows traversed the city and New Yorkers waded through piles of slush. Zohran Mamdani, who in his eight-week-old mayoralty has contended with two unusually grave winter storms, called this weekend’s weather the “snowstorm of the decade,” and he may be right. Preliminary numbers from New York State suggest that some city neighborhoods set records for single-day snowfalls. Fordham, in the Bronx, saw 22.6 inches of snow, nearly four inches more than the previous Bronx record of 19 inches, which was set in 2006. In Todt Hill on Staten Island, 27.8 inches fell, eight inches more than the Staten Island record of 19.5 inches set in 2016 . The storm came just weeks after an unusual cold spell enveloped the five boroughs in a frigid, weekslong embrace, accompanied by nearly a foot of snow. At least 20 people were found dead or dying in the cold, and some New Yorkers wondered if Mr. Mamdani could have done more to protect homeless people. This storm offered the mayor somet...