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New York City Department of Sanitation Snow Alert

DSNY Issues Snow Alert for Sunday, January 25, 2026, at 1 am

January 23, 2026

With potentially the largest snowfall in five years, New York's Strongest are running the full playbook — brining, salting, plowing, and likely even melting

Unless you absolutely must go out, stay home, enjoy your Sunday, and let New York's Strongest work safely

The New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) has issued a Snow Alert for Sunday, January 25, 2026, beginning at 1 a.m. A Snow Alert is the Department's "higher level" snow-fighting notification, as opposed to the "lower level" Winter Operations Advisory. Forecast models are increasingly converging around a forecast of 9-12" in much of the City, although localized variation up or down remains possible.

This may be the first significant, prolonged winter storm to hit New York City in about five years, but New York's Strongest have not been waiting — the Department is constantly updating its snow playbook, and now the men and women of DSNY are ready to run the plays on a Sunday storm.

Preparations for this storm are well underway and will continue through the weekend:

  • DSNY began applying brine to highways, streets, and bike lanes starting Friday morning. This is a liquid salt solution the Department frequently uses before some storms to help prevent snow and ice accumulations on roadways.
  • Sanitation Workers are working to affix plows and chains to all DSNY collection trucks, transforming them into snow plows.
  • Roughly 2,000 Sanitation Workers will be on every 12-hour shift beginning Saturday evening and continuing through the duration of the event.
  • With 700 million pounds of salt on hand, DSNY will have 700 salt spreaders filled and prepositioned, ready to spread salt at the first sign of snowflakes.
  • Plows will begin operating when two inches of snow accumulate, which may happen as early as 9 a.m. Sunday. Residents will be able to track the progress of DSNY snow removal vehicles at nyc.gov/PlowNYC. Remember, a plowed or salted street will not show blacktop right away.
  • Many New Yorkers rely on bike lanes to get to work or, in the case of delivery personnel, to do their work. DSNY has dozens of bike lane plows ready to service these areas at the same time as car lanes.
  • DSNY's snow-fighting operations will be tracked via DSNY's state-of-the-art BladeRunner 2.0 system from our command center, meaning snow equity for all New Yorkers. Every street is on a route, and every route is dispatched at once.

New Yorkers should know: DSNY is working to ensure your safety. Do your part both for yourself and for the Strongest by staying off the roads during active precipitation or, if you absolutely must drive, by doing so slowly, safely and carefully.

With sub-freezing temperatures expected to last throughout the week, DSNY is also preparing snow-melting operations, something the Department has not had to do since 2022. In snow-melting operations, the Department moves massive amounts of snow into a giant hot tub, melting the snow immediately and sending it into the city's sewer system.

Snow Clearing Information

While DSNY clears streets and bike lanes, property owners are responsible for clearing sidewalks. As a reminder, property owners and car owners may NOT push snow into the street, including bike lanes. This impedes snow clearing operations and is illegal. Snow may be moved against the building, to the curb line, or areas on private property. Sidewalks should be passable for all pedestrians, including a minimum 4-foot clear path, where possible.

If the snow stops falling between:

  • 7 a.m. and 5 p.m., property owners must clear sidewalks within 4 hours
  • 5 p.m. and 9 p.m., property owners must clear sidewalks within 14 hours
  • 9 p.m. and 7 a.m., property owners must clear sidewalks by 11 a.m.

Property owners with Empire Bins are responsible for clearing snow and ice from the Empire Bin to facilitate collection.

All winter weather information and information about the City's response to the storm can be found by visiting the City's Severe Weather website at nyc.gov/snow or by calling 311.

New Yorkers are also encouraged to sign up for NotifyNYC, the City's free emergency notification system, available in 14 languages including ASL. Through NotifyNYC, New Yorkers can sign up to receive phone calls, text messages, and email alerts about severe weather events and emergencies. To sign up for NotifyNYC, call 311, visit nyc.gov/notify or follow @NotifyNYC.

Press Release #26-03

pressoffice@dsny.nyc.gov