Another Blizzard in Brooklyn

I don’t remember a winter like this one. Since December, Brooklyn has been blasted by one storm after another. Sure, there have been colder years, deeper snowfalls, more frigid winds.

But during this long, long, loooooong winter, we’ve been hit by a rapid succession of snow and ice storms that have piled more than 50 inches of snow on the city. The crews barely finish clearing away the results of one storm before they must begin working on the next. Pedestrians struggle to cross intersections filled with icy, murky grey puddles and to maneuver around the mountains of  plowed-up, blackish snow.

The latest storm dumped about 20 inches of snow on the city, led to the second school closing day of the year, and inspired me to go out and capture a few moments when downtown and Brownstone Brooklyn were being coated with white.

Court Street as the storm begins

Piling up on Montague Street late at night

Still snowing in the morning

Cadman Plaza at Tillary Street

Snow in one of the few phone booths left on Court Street

Snow falls on the Brownstones

Snow and ice festoon a pair of windows

A street being buried

Garbage cans under snow

A row of barristers appear

Snow and wind made a face

A planter became a nest for a snowman on Schermerhorn Street

In New York’s Parks, a Snowy Day of Beauty and Caution

Snow Like Sushi

The blizzard began about 9:00 pm on Tuesday and by the time it stopped, in the wee hours of Thursday, Brooklyn had been blanketed with nearly 20 inches of snow. Even as the storm raged, crews from the Sanitation Department were out clearing the streets. A convoy of rumbling trucks drove through the night, scraping and plowing, scraping and plowing, keeping the roadways and bridges passable.

Once the storm ended the sun shone brightly, turning the piles of newly fallen snow into puddles of slush, and the soon most of the sidewalks in Downtown Brooklyn were clear and dry. In a few spots hidden from the sun by surrounding buildings or scaffolding, though, the melting snow became a sheet of ice.

With snow shovels and rock salt in short supply, some Brooklynites employ creative methods to keep their walkways safe for pedestrians. This sushi chef was using one of his fish cleavers to chip the slippery ice away from the front of his restaurant on Clark Street.

Chopping with the cleaver

The handle is wrapped in a towel, the way it would be for sushi

The ice is yielding to the cleaver master