Good morning. It’s Tuesday. Today we’ll get details on why yesterday was — finally — warmer, at least according to the thermometer. We’ll also get details on lawsuits that challenge the Trump administration on two different fronts.
The temperature in Central Park edged above 32 degrees on Monday, ending a streak of below-freezing temperatures that was in its 10th day. The breakthrough came between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. The hour began with the thermometer at 30.9 degrees. It climbed past freezing and hit 33 at 1:30 p.m. on the way to 34 at 2 p.m. But did anyone other than weather watchers notice? “I did not notice it,” said Jakob Hostetter, who works in the Central Park Conservancy’s Five Borough Program and spent most of the day in St. Nicholas Park in Upper Manhattan. He said it felt a bit like “Groundhog Day,” the movie about the television weather person who relives the same day over and over. Monday was, of course, Groundhog Day, but Hostetter was not thinking about the animal that figured in the movie, but about endless repetition. “There’s only one job you can do in this weather, and everyone’s doing it — moving snow,” he said. “You’re not really focusing on ‘Oh, it feels slightly warmer,’” he said. David Stark, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, did not use a word like “warmer” in discussing the temperature on Monday or his expectations for today, when the forecast calls for a high around 35. “The best way to put it is temperatures have moderated,” he said, adding that the city had remained frigid for so long because “constant reinforcements of Arctic air” had rolled in since Jan. 23. “Some days we didn’t get out of the teens or didn’t get above 20.” The high was 18 on Friday and 24.1 on both Saturday and Sunday. Wind chills also have to be taken into consideration. Chuck’s big dayIt was 18 degrees when the Staten Island Zoo checked in on Chuck, its resident groundhog. “It was very clear that the groundhog saw his shadow,” said Ed Burke, the zoo’s chief of staff. “There was disappointment.” “I like living in New York, where we have seasons,” he said, “but I think people would welcome above-freezing temperatures going forward. Whatever nature brings, it would be a relief if it’s above freezing.” Burke said that Mayor Zohran Mamdani had been invited to the annual ceremony yesterday. “We didn’t get word back that the mayor would be attending,” he said. The last time the zoo’s groundhog had predicted more winter was in 2014, when another mayor was just beginning his second month on the job. That mayor, Bill de Blasio, arrived at the zoo saying, “Chuck and my predecessor didn’t always get along.” It was a jovial reference to what had happened in 2009: Chuck bit the mayor before de Blasio, Michael Bloomberg. The Chuck who chomped Bloomberg was in fact different from the groundhog that de Blasio encountered, a female known around the zoo as Charlotte. De Blasio said years later that he regretted what happened: He picked her up, and she wriggled free and fell to the ground. Her handler retrieved her. Several months later, The New York Post said that Charlotte had died of “internal injuries” that were “consistent with a fall.” The zoo said at the time that she had shown no sign of trauma or pain during a “complete medical examination” after the episode. But The Post alleged a cover-up. Representative Mike Collins, a Republican from Georgia who is an ally of President Trump, referred to it as “Groundhog gate” in a post on X that included a photograph of Charlotte getting away from de Blasio. The zoo changed its policy, saying no one but the handlers would handle the groundhog anymore. And de Blasio said after leaving office that he regretted the episode. “It was idiocy,” he said. “Why would you want an elected official to hold a groundhog?” WEATHER Today will be another sunny and windy day as temperatures approach 35. There is a chance of snow tonight as temperatures drop to around 22. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING Suspended for snow removal. QUOTE OF THE DAY “With this weather and the risk of slipping and falling, it takes the job to another level.” — Jhony Albayero, who works for a moving company in Brooklyn, on the challenges of hauling furniture and maneuvering since last week’s snowstorm. The latest New York news
We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. 2 lawsuits challenge the Trump administration on different fronts
Two lawsuits with potential consequences for the New York area were filed against the Trump administration on Monday, one over the administration’s move to withhold more than $200 million in payments for the $16 billion rail tunnel under the Hudson River, the other over a nationwide ban on immigration from 75 countries. The suit involving the rail tunnel was filed in federal court in Washington by the consortium behind the project, Gateway Development Commission, against the United States. The commission building the tunnel warned last week that the money was running out and that it would have to shut down its work sites by Feb. 6. It said 1,000 workers would have to be laid off. The immigration lawsuit, against Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the State Department, sought to block a policy that the department said in a social media post was necessary to prevent those “who take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates” from entering the country. The post said the policy would continue “until the U.S. can ensure that new immigrants will not extract wealth from the American people,” suggesting that immigrants rely on the government for subsistence. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan by the National Immigration Law Center and five other legal organizations, called that an “unsupported and demonstrably false claim,” noting that most people who apply for immigrant visas are not eligible for cash welfare for years. More than 85 percent of the countries in question are non-European and have significant nonwhite populations. METROPOLITAN DIARY Love on the No. 3
Dear Diary: I am the older woman with flaming red hair and a perfect powder manicure sitting in a corner seat on a southbound No. 3 train. She is the pretty young woman leaning against the door, all but enveloped by her young man, who is possibly kissing her on the neck and cheek and possibly dozing. Either way, he is on her in a spectacularly public way. Over his shoulder, I meet her eyes. She drops the lids for a moment, perhaps a tad embarrassed to be seen being so indulgent. I grin in understanding. Spontaneously, we both start to laugh, giggle even. I can’t stop. Are women universally aware of the absurdity of love? Of men? He keeps curling into her, and I see her whispered suggestion of some self-control. He persists. They have been in this playful public place before. My stop is coming up. Still grinning, I begin collecting myself, making the familiar moves that signal that I am about to get off: sitting up straight, grasping the pole beside me. As we pull into 14th Street, I walk toward them. His back to me, I put a hand on his shoulder to steady myself, presuming an intimacy he hasn’t been part of. As I step onto the platform, the young woman and I share bright grins. — Kathleen Campion Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. Davaughnia Wilson and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. |
