It’s the white-mare before Christmas.
A winter storm is blasting the Northeast with a massive pounding of snow that could pile as high as 18 inches in New York.
But at least it ensures we’ll have a white Christmas, forecasters say.
The threat of a blizzard forced city-dwellers to turn away from last-minute Christmas shopping and hunt instead for bare essentials, in case they get snowed in for days.
PLUS: AN ENGAGEMENT AMIDST THE SNOW
“Once I saw the weather report, I knew we had to get our food shopping done,” said Bill Anderson, 69, among the throng packing a Foodtown supermarket in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. “If there’s a storm, there may not be a tomorrow!”
The nor’easter hammered Washington, DC, and points north — where it was believed to have caused five deaths — before its leading edge brought the first snow here at about 1 p.m.
The National Weather Service issued a winter-storm warning. Forecasters predicted that the worst of the wintry blast would hit the city overnight and dump about 12 inches of snow before ending at about 9 this morning.
Temperatures will dip to the mid-20s, but fierce winds are expected to make the sting feel worse.
“The wind will be gusting in the 30-mph range,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Scalora. “Even when the snow is ended, it could cause problems with blowing snow, and streets may have to be plowed again.”
The city pronounced itself prepared to do battle with nature. The Department of Sanitation said it had amassed 200,000 tons of rock salt for the roads, and positioned 365 salt spreaders around the five boroughs.
It added that it had organized 2,000 workers on 12-hour shifts throughout the storm — and said they’d be ready with some 2,000 pieces of plowing equipment to clear the streets.
“Right now, we’re sitting back and waiting on Mother Nature,” Sanitation spokesman Keith Mellis said just before the snow started falling. “As soon as the snow comes down, we’ll start spreading the salt.”
Area airports were socked with hundreds of cancellations. Newark, with 350, was hit the worst, while JFK and La Guardia each had about 200.
The Port Authority reported that it had 200 pieces of snow-clearing equipment with which to try to keep runways open and delays to a minimum.
As for the PATH train, the Port Authority set up a “jet engine” plow to blast snow off the tracks between the city and New Jersey.
The MTA said it had 8,000 tons of de-icing material and 97 trucks ready to keep its bridges clear. Some trucks are equipped with sensors that can report the ground temperature to the driver.
New York City Transit, meanwhile, said that it had stopped all scheduled subway repairs until Tuesday, and that it would deploy its own fleet of jet-engine blowers and de-icer cars to scrub the outdoor tracks.
Residents, too, stocked up on snow-clearing equipment.
“I’m a little bit worried,” said Carlos Catilan, 33, who bought rock salt and an ice-scraper at a Home Depot in Riverhead, LI. “It’s a little surprising now, too. I thought it would come later in the winter. I didn’t have what I needed.”
In Queens, Shaira Khan, 56, was out buying de-icer.
“When you own a house, you have to make sure you clean up the snow; you have to make sure no one gets hurt,” she said.
On Long Island — which was being hit harder than the five boroughs — John Parry, who works plowing driveways, said “the phone has not stopped ringing.”
By tomorrow, the skies should be clear, yet it should still be cold enough to ensure that the white stuff sticks around till Friday.
“Since the temperatures are not really getting that warm, the melting is going to be slow,” Scalora said, “so there will still be snow on the ground on Christmas.”
Worst of the worst
The top 5 snowfalls recorded in NYC:
* Feb. 11-12, 2006. 26.9 inches. Most snow in 140 years of recordkeeping; shut down all three area airports; cost $27 million in snow removal.
* Dec. 26-27, 1947. 26.4 inches. Nicknamed “the Big Snow”; shut down the subway system; claimed 77 lives.
* March 12-14, 1888. 21 inches. Extreme blizzard conditions; more than 50 inches in parts of tristate area.
* Jan. 7-8, 1996. 20.2 inches. City schools closed for first time since 1978.
* Feb. 11-12, 2003. 19.8 inches. Presidents Day snowstorm walloped entire East Coast; Baltimore recorded 36 inches
Source: Weather2000, a New York-based weather research firm.
Additional reporting by Lorena Mongelli