Photo Credit: DS Levi
New York City was paralyzed in the storm, and locals were told to stay off the streets in the winter of 2017.

New York is preparing its emergency response teams in advance of the second “significant” winter storm expect to hit the region this weekend with a polar vortex smackdown.

Beginning Thursday and continuing through Saturday, the storm is expected to create multiple hazards throughout the state.

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Heavy, rain, snow, high winds, flash freezing and flooding are all on the agenda for regions across the state, forecasters said.

Lake effect snow is expected to wallop the areas along Lakes Erie and Ontario beginning Friday night and continuing straight through until Monday, with total snow accumulations expected to reach 12 inches or more. Strong winds are expected to causing blowing and drifting snow with near-zero visibility and localized blizzard conditions.

Rain and snow showers are forecast for much of the state, with rainfall of up to three inches possible in some places by Friday afternoon. New Yorkers are lucky it’s rain, however: three inches of rain equals 30 inches (two and a half feet) of snow.

However, flooding is predicted due to rain and snowmelt, and brief wintry mixes could cause slick travel into early Friday morning.

The biggest risk will arrive on Friday afternoon and evening, when plummeting temperatures will mean flash freezing that will cause icy road conditions throughout the state, including New York City and Long Island, during the Friday evening commute and into the weekend. Wind chills in the New York metropolitan area are expected to drop to zero degrees Fahrenheit — minus 18 degrees Celsius.

Those temperatures and low wind chill factors are expected to continue through Monday in the upstate regions.

“New Yorkers preparing to travel this week to see loved ones over the holiday weekend should plan ahead and leave early in possible, as we expect this weather system to create hazardous travel conditions throughout the state starting Friday,” Governor Kathy Hochul said.

Get Ready, Chicago
Before the storm hits New York, however, forecasters are warning people to hunker down in Chicago.

Dangerously cold temperatures, strong wind gusts, snow accumulation and blizzard-like conditions are on the way to the Windy City from the western plains, where the storm has already arrived.

The storm is expected to hit the Chiago area with between three to six inches of snow, NBC 5 reported, with sub-zero wind chills in the city forecast from Thursday evening through Sunday.

“Welcome to winter,” meteorologist Paul Deanno wrote in a wry tweet.


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Hana Levi Julian is a Middle East news analyst with a degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from Southern Connecticut State University. A past columnist with The Jewish Press and senior editor at Arutz 7, Ms. Julian has written for Babble.com, Chabad.org and other media outlets, in addition to her years working in broadcast journalism.