Welcome To The Slush Party, NYC

Slush lagoon comin' in.

Good morning, New York City has melted into a slush pile and I feel semi-satisfied with the weekend's snowfall: On the one hand, it proved mucky and fleeting; on the other, snow actually happened, and who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth after all my complaining?

In case you somehow missed it, the city enjoyed consecutive dustings on Friday, Saturday, and on Sunday night, more or less as forecast. Dustings may not actually be the right word, as it implies a light and dry consistency this snow lacked entirely. Last night's showing was heavy and very wet, having transformed from a sloshy and obnoxious wintery mix into more respectable flakes within the span of roughly two hours.

NYC has not seen this much accumulation since mid-November: According to the National Weather Service, Central Park charted five inches of accumulation just before 7 a.m. today, while parts of New Jersey saw upwards of 9 inches. Sunday's storm even closed NYC's public schools, so that the children may partake of the slush.

Given the sad, largely snow-less stretch of winter months we've weathered so far, I suppose I can understand last night's panic: After so many snow snubbings, the flakes finally started falling—and fast. I imagine that the educational authorities looked out their windows and found themselves catapulted back in time to four-ish months ago, when everybody scoffed at the possibility of two inches, max, and then a bunch of kids wound up trapped for hours on school buses thanks to a pre-Thanksgiving microblizzard.

Anyway, I hope you wore your grippiest, water-repelling-est shoes today, because warming temps have slicked the sidewalks with snow juice, the runoff creating robust curbside slush lagoons (beware!) that deepen by the minute. Also, I hope you wore your sunglasses, because the sun is starting to come out, with high temperatures expected to approach 40 degrees this afternoon.

Did your neighborhood see salt spreaders? If not, please direct your complaints to Mayor Bill de Blasio: According to the NY Post, he's hoarding all the salt over at Gracie Mansion, allegedly lording over it like some sort of miserly sodium baron. (The mayor's office denies this.)

Rising temperatures today should melt whatever snow remains, but don't expect the relative warmth to last: The rest of the week will remain below freezing, dipping down into the teens early Thursday morning, and probably freezing the slush lagoons into icy death rinks. Be careful out there, you don't want to fall into whatever the hell is happening here:

Slush lagoon marked for destruction? (Jen Chung/Gothamist)