The National Weather Service issued a hazardous weather advisory for New York City in anticipation of frigid wind chills amid scattered snow showers expected Friday night into Saturday morning.
Temperatures will dip slightly below freezing Friday night, but will feel as low as 20 degrees due to wind chill. Saturday will see only a slight warming, as the wind chill will make it feel like 25 degrees.
The dusting may see up to 1 inch of snow accumulate locally, with a 30 percent chance of precipitation, according to the weather service.
Meanwhile, NYC Emergency Management issued a “Cold Blue” advisory Friday afternoon through 8 a.m. Saturday, and dispatched outreach teams to canvass throughout the five boroughs to connect vulnerable New Yorkers to shelters.
“No one who is homeless and seeking shelter in New York City during a Code Blue will be denied,” NYCEM said, adding, “New Yorkers who see individuals they believe to be experiencing homelessness and in need should contact 311 via phone or mobile app and request outreach assistance.”
Friday’s weather advisory follows a lingering local deep freeze that contributed to what officials on Thursday reported as 19 deaths on the city’s streets.
The city medical examiner’s office found that 15 of those deaths were due to hypothermia, with the others remaining undetermined. The mayor’s office has said that three of the deaths were due to drug overdoses.
Earlier this week, New York City Council members grilled Mamdani administration officials over their outreach to homeless New Yorkers during the cold spell. Breaking with his predecessors, Mayor Mamdani has refused repeated calls to involuntarily remove the homeless from the streets amid freezing conditions, with he himself having called the cold snap’s coldest period “lethal.”
“Eighteen New Yorkers have lost their lives since the city declared Code Blue. These deaths are not inevitable,” Council Speaker Julie Menin said Tuesday. “They are the result of gaps in outreach, shelter capacity, mental health services.”
Department of Social Services Commissioner Molly Wasow Park said at a City Council oversight hearing that the total number of hypothermia-related deaths this winter for homeless New Yorkers is likely to be worse than in typical years.
“This is gonna be a year that is outside the norm, which is tragic, and I feel that every day,” Park told the hearing. “So I think we will be looking at what we can do differently. Absolutely.”
The city on Tuesday confirmed seven additional cold-related deaths that occurred at private residences. The specific circumstances of those seven deaths were not immediately available, though the mayor’s office confirmed that hypothermia was determined to be the cause of death for all of them.