Big Snowball Fights Erupt in Wash. Sq. Park During Blizzard
The blizzard, which began on Feb. 22, dumped more than 19.7 inches of snow by end of day Feb. 23. A massive snowball fight reportedly broke out in Washington Square Park around 2 p.m. on Monday.
| 24 Feb 2026 | 11:11
Massive snowball fights erupted in Washington Square Park on the afternoon of Feb. 23. (
)
Slender branches are loaded with wet snow in Greenwich Village on Feb. 22. (
)
Snowblower clears snow outside Immaculate Conception Church on E. 14th St. (
)
West Village Streets are more picturesque than usual as the second major storm of the season socked the city on Feb. 22-23. (
)
New Yorkers awoke to a winter wonderland on Feb. 23 even as the storm continued to swirl eventually dumping 19.7 inches of snow in Central Park. (
)
The YMHA on E. 14th St. was closed on Feb. 23, but a woman works a snowblower to clear a path for reopening on Feb. 24. (
)
A homeless man outside a tent in the East Village. Mayor Mamdani is undertaking outreach to the city’s homeless population after 19 people died on city streets in the aftermath of the Jan. 24 storm. (
)
Sixth Ave. in Greenwich Village is virtually devoid of traffic on the evening of Feb. 22, as most motorists heeded the emergency ban to stay off streets from 9 p.m. until noon on Feb. 23. (
)
NYPD cruiser answers a call in the East Village. (
)
MTA was able to keep subways and buses, such as this one making its way up First Ave., running throughout the blizzard on Feb. 22-23. (
)
NYC Aids Memorial Park at St. Vincent’s Triangle, located at the corner of Greenwich Ave. and W. 12th St., is decorated in winter white. (
)
A blizzard walloped Manhattan on Feb. 23, cancelling classes and sending wind gusts of over 40 MPH. A snow emergency banned traffic while the storm gathered intensity around 9 p.m. on Feb. 22, and lasted until noon on Monday, when snow finally began to taper off.
A massive snowball fight broke out in Washington Square Park, organized by the crowdsourcing site Side Talk. The video was no longer available on its site on Feb. 23. Social media posts said when police responded to break it up, they were pelted by snowballs and several officers were injured. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch called the incident “disgraceful.”
A city dump truck fell into a sink hole by City Hall, but workers managed to hoist it out. Uptown on the UES, several tree branches snapped off and fell to the street, but no bystanders were injured. Madison Square Park was closed to the public on Feb. 23, due to danger of falling branches.
Washington Heights in northern Manhattan was the hardest hit area in Manhattan with 22.1 inches of snow, while Central Park recorded 19.7 inches by end of day Feb. 23.
The heavy snowfall marks the first blizzard to hit the city since Jan. 2016. It’s been classified as a “bomb cyclone” or “Nor’easter” by meteorologists, due to the rapid drop in barometric pressure that has given it so much force.
Wind gusts of up to 47 MPH were reported in Manhattan around 3 a.m. on Feb. 23. Over 730 snowplows hit the streets early and the Sanitation Department began clearing crosswalks, bus stops and fire hydrants on Sunday night. More than 800 emergency snow shovelers hit the streets on Feb. 23.
As the storm gathered momentum on Sunday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani issued a travel ban for all non-essential vehicle traffic that was in effect from 9 p.m. on Feb. 23 to noon on Feb. 23. This meant that only emergency-response vehicles, MTA buses, utility vehicles, or vehicles transporting workers deemed essential were permitted on the roads.
After getting some criticism for ordering schools kids to go to remote learning in an earlier Jan. 24 storm, this time around Mamdani gave a snow day to the city’s approximately one million public school students, the first since 2019. He encouraged schoolchildren to go sledding once the blizzard slows, which started around midday on Feb. 23. Students were instructed to return to class on Tuesday, Feb. 24. That move drew criticism from the teacher’s union, citing safety concerns.
By the end of the day on Feb. 23, the website Plow NYC showed that about half the roads in Manhattan, especially along the north/south avenues, had been plowed once in the past hour. Most of the east/west streets had been plowed at least once in the past three hours.
The Feb. 22-23 blizzard follows another walloping winter storm that hit New York City a month ago, which dropped 11.5 inches on Central Park on Jan. 25.
The bitterly cold weather that both preceded and outlasted that storm led to 26 deaths, 19 of which occurred outdoors, city officials say. A large number of these deaths reportedly stemmed from hypothermia but several were from drug overdoses.
Snow from last month’s storm also took weeks to melt due to a persistent streak of sub-freezing temperatures; the melting process appeared to have neared completion in many areas when the current blizzard touched down.
City officials say that above-freezing temperatures in the days following Feb. 23 will greatly speed up the melt-off this time around, however. If a new Farmer’s Almanac’s forecast bears out, New Yorkers can look forward to a dry and warmer-than-usual spring, too.