Name: Winter Storm in New York, February 18 to 19, 2000
Start: 2000-02-18T15:24
End: 2000-02-19T05:00
Location: New York

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 8 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 1
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 10

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS OKX wrote it up.

With cold air in place, as a warm front approached from the south and a weak low pressure system moved northeast along the coast, light snow developed from around 6:40 am at Westchester County Airport to 10:45 am at Westhampton Beach (in Suffolk County). Snowfall became heavy, falling at the rate of at least 1 inch per hour from around 10 am across the entire area until around 4 pm across Orange and Putnam Counties. Snow changed to freezing rain from around 2:30 pm along the south shore of Long Island to around 7 pm across Orange County.Snowfall amounts ranged from 1 to 2 inches along the south shores of Long Island, 3 to 4 inches across the north shores of Long Island and New York City to 6 inches across the Lower Hudson Valley. This first round of heavy precipitation was followed by up to a 1/8th-inch thick ice coating, which caused serious and widespread traffic disruptions.Here are selected snowfall amounts:For Orange County: from 5.5 inches at Middletown, Walden, and Greenwood Lake to 6.5 inches at Montgomery.For Putnam County: from 3 inches at Lake Carmel to 6 inches at Croton Falls.For Westchester County: from 2 inches at Yonkers to 6 inches at White Plains.For New York (Manhattan) County: from 3 inches at Central Park to 3.8 inches at Columbia University.For Queens County: from 2 inches at JFK Airport to 3 inches at LGA Airport.A second low pressure system moved east from Pennsylvania, and passed "just" south of Long Island overnight. This low produced freezing rain across the region. At both JFK Airport and LGA Airport, 0.25 and 0.26 inches of freezing rain was measured as temperatures hovered from 30 to 31 degrees. At Central Park, 0.23 inches of freezing rain was measured. Significant icing of roads occurred, which forced the closure of many metro roads overnight. Numerous traffic accidents occurred on ice-covered roads. A woman died when her car spun out of control on ice-covered streets in Centereach (Suffolk County) early Saturday morning.

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

10 winter storm. Local standard time, as filed.

Winter Storm, Northern Westchester

When: February 18, 3:24 PM EST
Where: Northern Westchester forecast zone
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 41.152, -73.753 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Rockland

When: February 18, 3:24 PM EST
Where: Rockland forecast zone
Reported by: BROADCAST MEDIA
Coordinates: 41.152, -74.024 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Southern Westchester

When: February 18, 3:24 PM EST
Where: Southern Westchester forecast zone
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 41.152, -73.753 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Orange

When: February 18, 4:00 PM EST
Where: Orange forecast zone
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 41.402, -74.306 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Putnam

When: February 18, 5:25 PM EST
Where: Putnam forecast zone
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 41.427, -73.749 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, New York (Manhattan)

When: February 19, 3:38 AM EST
Where: New York (Manhattan) forecast zone
Reported by: EMERGENCY MANAGER
Coordinates: 40.774, -73.970 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Queens

When: February 19, 4:00 AM EST
Where: Queens forecast zone
Reported by: EMERGENCY MANAGER

Winter Storm, Nassau

When: February 19, 4:40 AM EST
Where: Nassau forecast zone
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER

Winter Storm, Northwest Suffolk

When: February 19, 5:00 AM EST
Where: Northwest Suffolk forecast zone
Deaths: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 40.941, -72.685 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Northeast Suffolk

When: February 19, 5:00 AM EST
Where: Northeast Suffolk forecast zone
Reported by: OFFICIAL NWS OBS.
Coordinates: 40.941, -72.685 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

The people who died

As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.

Event	Date	Age	Sex	Where	Kind
Winter Storm, Northwest Suffolk	2000-02-19	43	Female	Vehicle/Towed Trailer	Direct

What these are

Winter Storm: A storm that brought snow, sleet or freezing rain at warning levels, usually over several hours or days.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in New York in 2000 Every state in 2000 This day in weather history Warnings in New York, February 2000

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5127151, 5127154, 5127155, 5127152, 5127153, 5127156, 5127157, 5127158, 5127159, 5127160.