NYC temperatures could cause frostbite in minutes Saturday night and Sunday

Temperatures in New York City Saturday night could cause frostbite in as little as 30 minutes, with wind chills as low as 15 degrees below 0, according to the National Weather Service.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani Saturday said it would be the coldest night of the winter, pleading with New Yorkers to stay inside and urging homeless New Yorkers to take advantage of expanded options for shelter.

Gothamist saw about 20 people hunkered down Saturday evening, below blankets and sleeping one of the city’s mobile warming centers — a bus outside the Staten Island Ferry Terminal in Manhattan. On another recent night in the cold, over the course of hours, no one seemed to realize the bus was there. Mamdani told WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show he took responsibility for the communication breakdown.

In the subway station, Mike Lopez was digging an inhaler out of his bag. His job has him in the field all day, and he said the extreme cold — and people vaping everywhere — makes his asthma worse.

“I go outside, come back in and warm up for five minutes, he said. “But, yeah, no — it’s kind of inhumane.”

At an event with firefighters and EMS workers in Staten Island Saturday, Mamdani encouraged anyone — housed or otherwise — to get indoors.

“I will encourage you, if you have to leave your home, to make sure that you are fully and properly clothed, but frankly, with this kind of weather, there just simply isn’t enough weather to keep you warm when you’re outside for a sustained period of time,” he said.

The weather service warned wind gusts of up to 50 mph could blow around unsecured objects, knock down tree limbs or cause power outages. Driving would be difficult, especially for high-profile vehicles, the NWS said in its alerts.

Daytime temperatures Sunday will be just as brutal, with an extreme cold warning in effect until 1 p.m.

“Dress in layers including a hat, face masks and gloves if you must go outside. Keep pets indoors as much as possible,” the National Weather Service wrote. It urged checking in on older loved ones and neighbors, and cautioned against using generators or grills.

The lows Saturday night and Sunday will be among the worst since temperatures plummeted in late January and the city saw its largest snowstorm in years. At least 17 people have been found dead in the cold since Jan. 24, with five deaths so far attributed to hypothermia and more under investigation. In some of those cases, alcohol or ethanol intoxication also played a role, according to the city medical examiner’s office.

Mamdani has described an “all-hands-on-deck” effort to get people out of this weekend’s cold that included reopening several public schools as warming centers and deploying school nurses and violence interrupters for street outreach.

Saturday, he announced further extensions of those efforts. City Hall said it would add another 150 outreach workers to the 400 Department of Homeless Services outreach staff already working around the clock. Warming centers in Far Rockaway and one in Washington Heights would supplement 10 schools already reopened to get people out of the cold. The city says it’s operating 65 warming facilities in all.

The city has also added 65 new hotel shelter units for people reluctant to enter congregate settings. It’s operating dozens of warming buses that City Hall says have provided more than 1,000 “clinical consultations,” providing supplies including blankets and warm clothing to 80% of the people they’ve engaged.

The city is also keeping two overdose prevention centers open 24 hours Saturday and Sunday.

And the city this week expedited the opening of a new 106-bed shelter near the South Street Seaport that had been delayed amid a community group’s legal challenge.

Mamdani said the city is additionally piloting a peer outreach model, where formerly homeless New Yorkers work with outreach workers to try and bring other people inside.

The bitter cold and heavy death toll has proved an acute challenge for Mamdani’s young administration. Gothamist previously reported that even police and a Department of Transportation employee were unaware of the warming center outside the Staten Island Ferry Terminal on a recent night. The terminal also lacked any signage for the warming center — which Mamdani told Lehrer he recognized was “critical” to fix.

This weekend, signs inside the terminal told visitors that a warming bus was outside, open 24 hours, and offered clinical care, food and warming supplies. A sign taped to the side of the bus identified it as a warming center in multiple languages.

According to the city, it has made more than 1,300 shelter placements and involuntarily transported 29 New Yorkers since mid-January. Mamdani has resisted the homeless encampment “sweeps” his predecessor favored, but said involuntary removals for people who pose a danger to themselves or others — including because of the cold temperature — remain a last-resort option.

Temperatures should reach highs around 30s and lows in the teens, with calmer winds, on Monday.

Gothamist has assembled the following resources for New Yorkers who need assistance in extreme weather:

• News updates and alerts: Tune in to WNYC 93.9 FM and AM 820, use the WNYC app and check back on Gothamist for regular updates.
• Weather updates: Check forecasts, current conditions and hazard alerts from the National Weather Service in New York and New Jersey.
• Emergency updates: In New York City, text NOTIFYNYC to 692-692 for citywide emergency updates in English; NOTIFYNYCESP for Spanish; or NOTIFYNYCFRE for French. Alerts are also available on the NotifyNYC app.
• Department of Sanitation: See snow alerts and advisories about service changes and operations updates. Reminder: Property owners can face fines if they don’t clear their own sidewalks.
• Social updates — NYC: NYC Emergency Management also posts updates on X. You might want to keep an eye on feeds from Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul.
• Social Updates — NJ: New Jersey posts updates on its ReadyNJ feed. You may want to watch out for alerts from the NJ State Police and Gov. Mikie Sherrill as well.
• Transit services: Keep tabs on alerts from the MTA, Metro-North Railroad, Long Island Rail Road, NJ Transit and Amtrak.
• Road conditions: Traffic maps are at 511NY.org and 511NJ.org.
• Flight delays and cancellations: Check with your airline and sign up for travel alerts.
• Power outages — NY: Power companies throughout the region maintain power maps. Check Con Edison for New York City and Westchester, PSEG in Long Island, Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corp. in the Mid-Hudson Valley, and Orange and Rockland Utilities.
• Power outages — NJ: Maps are available from JCP&L, PSE&G and Atlantic City Electric.
• School closings, delays, remote learning: See updates from New York City Public Schools or check on the alerts used by your school district.
• Warming centers and homeless shelters: Information on NYC drop-in centers is here. Information on NJ warming centers is here.
• Be prepared! See the city’s winter guide to staying safe in the cold and planning for winter weather.
• Call the city: To report issues or be directed to the right place for general city information, call 311.