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NYC temperatures could cause frostbite in minutes this weekend

By

Ryan Kailath

and

Louis C. Hochman

Published Feb 7, 2026

Modified Feb 7, 2026

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People walk down a Brooklyn street Saturday while an "extreme cold warning' is in effect.

 

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

By

Ryan Kailath

and

Louis C. Hochman

Published Feb 7, 2026

Modified Feb 7, 2026

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Temperatures in New York City this weekend could cause frostbite in as little as 30 minutes, with wind chills at times as low as 15 degrees below 0, according to the National Weather Service.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani Saturday said it would be the coldest night of the winter, pleading with New Yorkers to stay inside and urging homeless New Yorkers to take advantage of expanded options for shelter. Daytime temperatures Sunday will be just as brutal, with an extreme cold warning in effect until 1 p.m.

Gothamist saw about 20 people hunkered down Saturday evening, below blankets and sleeping one of the city's mobile warming centers — a bus outside the Staten Island Ferry Terminal in Manhattan. On another recent night in the cold, over the course of hours, no one seemed to realize the bus was there. Mamdani told WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show he took responsibility for the communication breakdown.

In the subway station, Mike Lopez was digging an inhaler out of his bag. His job has him in the field all day, and he said the extreme cold — and people vaping everywhere — makes his asthma worse.

"I go outside, come back in and warm up for five minutes, he said. "But, yeah, no — it's kind of inhumane."

At an event with firefighters and EMS workers in Staten Island Saturday, Mamdani encouraged anyone — housed or otherwise — to get indoors.

"I will encourage you, if you have to leave your home, to make sure that you are fully and properly clothed, but frankly, with this kind of weather, there just simply isn't enough weather to keep you warm when you're outside for a sustained period of time," he said.

The weather service warned wind gusts of up to 50 mph Saturday night could blow around unsecured objects, knock down tree limbs or cause power outages. Driving would be difficult, especially for high-profile vehicles, the NWS said in its alerts.

“Dress in layers including a hat, face masks and gloves if you must go outside. Keep pets indoors as much as possible,” the National Weather Service wrote. It urged checking in on older loved ones and neighbors, and cautioned against using generators or grills.

This weekend's lows are among the worst since temperatures plummeted in late January and the city saw its largest snowstorm in years. At least 17 people have been found dead in the cold since Jan. 24, with five deaths so far attributed to hypothermia and more under investigation. In some of those cases, alcohol or ethanol intoxication also played a role, according to the city medical examiner’s office.

A sign in the Staten Island Ferry Terminal Saturday tells people about a warming bus outside.

Ryan Kailath / Gothamist

Mamdani has described an “all-hands-on-deck” effort to get people out of this weekend’s cold that included reopening several public schools as warming centers and deploying school nurses and violence interrupters for street outreach.

Saturday, he announced further extensions of those efforts. City Hall said it would add another 150 outreach workers to the 400 Department of Homeless Services outreach staff already working around the clock. Warming centers in Far Rockaway and one in Washington Heights would supplement 10 schools already reopened to get people out of the cold. The city says it’s operating 65 warming facilities in all.

The city has also added 65 new hotel shelter units for people reluctant to enter congregate settings. It's operating dozens of warming buses that City Hall says have provided more than 1,000 "clinical consultations," providing supplies including blankets and warm clothing to 80% of the people they've engaged.

The city is also keeping two overdose prevention centers open 24 hours throughout the weekend.

And the city this week expedited the opening of a new 106-bed shelter near the South Street Seaport that had been delayed amid a community group’s legal challenge.

Mamdani said the city is additionally piloting a peer outreach model, where formerly homeless New Yorkers work with outreach workers to try and bring other people inside.

The bitter cold and heavy death toll has proved an acute challenge for Mamdani’s young administration. Gothamist previously reported that even police and a Department of Transportation employee were unaware of the warming center outside the Staten Island Ferry Terminal on a recent night. The terminal also lacked any signage for the warming center — which Mamdani told Lehrer he recognized was "critical" to fix.

Saturday, signs inside the terminal told visitors that a warming bus was outside, open 24 hours, and offered clinical care, food and warming supplies. A sign taped to the side of the bus identified it as a warming center in multiple languages.

According to the city, it has made more than 1,300 shelter placements and involuntarily transported 29 New Yorkers since mid-January. Mamdani has resisted the homeless encampment "sweeps" his predecessor favored, but said involuntary removals for people who pose a danger to themselves or others — including because of the cold temperature — remain a last-resort option.

Temperatures should reach highs around 30s and lows in the teens, with calmer winds, on Monday.

Gothamist has assembled the following resources for New Yorkers who need assistance in extreme weather:

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homeless

new york city

weather

Ryan Kailath

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Louis C. Hochman

After about two decades in (mostly) New Jersey-focused commercial print, digital and digital-but-radio-adjacent news, Lou stumbled into member-supported news in early 2021, as the editor and CEO of Montclair Local. There, he (hopes he) expanded enterprise, brought more sophistication to digital storytelling and moved the nonprofit newsroom closer to long-term financial sustainability. He helped lead the Local to its fourth consecutive General Excellence award from the New Jersey Press Association — the NJPA's highest honor with judges noting the paper's work to strip away layers of government opacity, to hold power to account, to make news accessible for more members of the community, to share the stories and concerns of more facets of the community and to tell compelling stories across multiple media. He's excited to continue the same ethic — news as a public service — at NYPR as the New Jersey and suburbs editor, drawing on the extraordinary talents of reporters including Karen Yi and Nancy Solomon. Lou lives in Philly (that commute!) with his partner and their two cats, about whom and about which he speaks incessantly.

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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