After ringing in the new year with frigid temperatures and a possible dusting of snow, New Yorkers should brace themselves for an arctic low of 5 degrees Friday, forecasters say.
The year 2014 will also bring the possibility of up to a foot of snow starting Thursday before the arrival of a Canadian cold front, AccuWeather says.
Tuesday’s forecast calls for dry and mostly clear conditions as Bronx native and US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor leads the countdown for the ball drop in Times Square.
But the mercury is expected to dip to 22 degrees with winds up to 20 mph, making it feel more like 8 to 14 degrees.
Meanwhile, two storms are set to converge over the Northeast Thursday and dump as much as six to 12 inches of snow on the city.
“The odds strongly favor snow in the city,” said AccuWeather meteorologist Dave Dombek. “It’s almost a given that we get an inch or two.”
Even if the snow doesn’t fall, a cold front will arrive from Canada Friday and send temps down to 5 degrees — or lower.
“This air mass has the potential to overachieve on the low side,” Dombek said.
At the Eastern Mountain Sports store on the Upper West Side, British transplant Daisy Donald, 25, of Hell’s Kitchen, was shopping for winter wear.
“Since it’s my first winter here, I figured better safe than sorry,” she said.
And in Brooklyn, Lillian Chico, 59, of Fort Greene, was buying thermal shirts at the Target in the Atlantic Terminal shopping mall.
“I was out around 12:30. It was already going down. You could feel it,” she said.
“It’s cold and getting colder.”