New York’s second storm
Mid-morning in my neighbourhood – still glistening.
It was my neighbour who warned me about the storm this time, a young mother from the Dominican Republic. “I’m just back from the supermarket,” she said, as the taxi driver carried in bags. “The lines were an hour-and-a-half long. People are panicking.”
The next day (Friday) when I took a subway into town, the trains were thronged even though it was just 4pm. A woman told me that everyone was going home early, in anticipation of the storm that was about to hit.
The sky was indeed ominous, that deep grey foretelling snow. But Nemo seems to have been kindlier to New York than Hurricane Sandy. This morning, the world was a crystalline white, and when I walked around outside children were frolicking and squealing as their parents stood by all smiles. A little dog, wearing a jacket, was cautiously sniffing the cold stuff, his owner looking on from the doorstep. Cold white powder blew like a sandstorm, and the air was unbearably bright.
According to some research, snow may become a rarer phenomenon in the northern hemisphere because of climate change. In New York next week, the forecasts say that we’ll be back to rain and cold, and already the snow is melting, leaving almost as quickly as it came.
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- A snowplough at work in Bushwick
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- As the day grew warm, it was time to do laundry. People all over were wheeling their trolleys to the laundrette, and this person dried theirs out the back.
An Irish Girl Abroad 