Despite the recent spring snow in NYC, New Yorkers are keeping their heads up, looking forward to warm weather. But one meteorologist is advising New Yorkers not to get their hopes up too soon.
“This recent snowfall may not be the last spring snow shower we see in New York”, says meteorologist, Harvey Cline. Cline has spent nearly the last decade studying the notorious nor’easters. As a lifelong resident of New York City, Cline has devoted his recent years to understanding patterns related to these unique storms so that he, and other meteorologists, can better predict when the storms will hit.
“I have suspicions, which colleagues of mine have supported, that we may see two or possibly three more snow storms in New York before the snow lets up for this season”, says Cline. “I’m not predicting any North American Blizzard of 2006”, assured Cline, “but I think we might see snow within New York City limits as late as mid-May”. I had a chance to discuss the disappointing prediction with some New York residents. The responses I received were varied.
“This is awful, just dreadfully awful”, commented Regina Landers, a 35 year old ice cream shop owner in Park Slope, Brooklyn. “My business depends on warm weather. Nobody wants to come out to my ice cream shop, or any ice cream shop at that, when it’s snowing. I mean, it’s really not funny. My livelihood depends on this, it really does”.
Landers isn’t the only one in this position. In fact, most people in the city seem to be squirming under the pressure of this news. Beer garden bartenders, Botanic Garden landscape artists, Coney Island lifeguards, Fire Island fire dancers, and even regular people living in New York suffer when winter overstays its welcome.
“My family has suffered enough”, said Michael Zito, a 48 year old father of three. Zito recently purchased a home in Jamaica, Queens and he’s unhappy with Bloomberg’s inability to control these spring snow storms. “This is taxing on my home”, said an angered Zito. “It’s hard on my pipes, my roof, on everything. But does the city care? No, ma’am. They don’t care about little ol’ me”.
In contrast to Landers and Zito, some New Yorkers don’t like it hot. Mira Petrov, 19, came to the States from Moscow with her family 5 years ago so that she could pursue her modeling career. Petrov says the warm weather doesn’t “help” her ambitions and that’s she’s happy to have more cold weather than usual this year.
“My love for fashion revolves around clothing. If the sun is always out, why wear clothing? There’s no need for it”, says Petrov, clearly annoyed by those who are annoyed with the spring snow news. “Summer apparel is much more revealing than winter and spring apparel. Think about it. What does a lady wear? A lady wears gorgeous furs and complex layers”, remarked the girl.
I must have seemed dubious because she quickly neutralized her stance in saying, “Now I don’t want it to snow all summer. It would be nice if we have a few months of weather in the 50’s and 60’s, but anything hotter than that is just unnecessary”.
Meanwhile, NYC’s hip are considering other cities.
“It’s not that I don’t love New York”, said Megan Price of Williamsburg, but originally of Akron, Ohio. “But I’m pretty sure I could wait tables at a cool raw food joint in Austin and not be so miserable half of the year”.
John Mark is a painter based out of Long Island City. He’s been in New York for over a decade now and this spring snow prediction seems to be convincing him to “finally” leave.
“Living in NYC seemed so essential 11 years ago”, he explains. “Before Etsy, I mean. But now I have an Etsy and I sell my art on there and quite honestly, I sell much more on Etsy than I ever did in Union Square. And I mean, I could sell to these customers from everywhere. I’m actually really confused about why I’m paying New York rent…”, he trailed off.
“I guess I’ll just stock up on groceries and hole up in my studio”, Mark continued. “And I’ll try to stay positive. The snowflakes here are really gorgeous when they’re falling. Snow in New York is beautiful. Until it hits the ground”.
So brace yourselves, New Yorkers. If there’s any such thing as karma in any form whatsoever at all, you will probably be rewarded for your ongoing hard work despite the dismal weather with a few decent months this summer.