Finally!
Temperatures started to rise in the tri-state region Saturday, paving the way for what's expected to be a much-anticipated warmer week at the tail end of a winter most everyone in the area will remember.
The weekend warm-up arrived less than two weeks before the first day of spring, which is March 20, and just as residents were preparing to adjust their clocks and welcome an extra hour of sunlight into their evenings.
Storm Team 4 advised residents to expect plenty of melting snow as temperatures rose above freezing in many places Saturday afternoon. The mercury was expected to dip just below freezing again Saturday night, followed by temperatures as high as 45 degrees Sunday.
Monday was expected to hit a sunny 46 degrees, and Tuesday was expected to stay similarly warm even with some expected rainfall.
Wednesday could hit a high of 49 degrees.
All this relative warmth follows a string of snowstorms and icy weather. On Thursday, the most recent storm dumped 7.5 inches of snow in Central Park and more in some parts of the five boroughs and surrounding suburbs, 3 to 6 inches in Connecticut, 5 to 8 inches in northeastern New Jersey, 3 to 7 inches in the lower Hudson Valley and 6 to 9 inches in central and southern New Jersey.
The snow complicated travel on railways and roads, and may have been a contributing factor when a plane skidded off of an icy runway at LaGuardia airport Thursday morning.
Local
The city Department of Sanitation says it's called 22 snow alerts so far this winter and handled three storms last week alone.
According to Storm Team 4, 42.5 inches of snow have fallen in Central park this season, nearly double the average 22.3 inches that fall each winter. Last year, 57.4 inches were recorded in the park.
