NEW YORK (VINnews) — Mayor Zohran Mamdani was ridiculed online after warning New Yorkers that the city could receive anywhere from 3 to 16 inches of snow this weekend, a broad prediction that drew criticism as a winter storm approached the region.
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Mamdani posted the forecast on X late Friday as New York City was placed under a winter storm watch by the National Weather Service, which projected a narrower range of 6 to 12 inches of snow for parts of the city and surrounding areas.
NYC is forecasted to get 3–16 inches of snow this weekend. And we’re ready.
We’ll issue a Code Blue later today, and outreach workers will ramp up efforts to connect unhoused New Yorkers to safe shelter.
Tomorrow, we'll begin pre-snow treatment, brining highways and major…
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) January 22, 2026
“NYC is forecasted to get 3–16 inches of snow this weekend. And we’re ready,” Mamdani wrote, adding that the city would activate a Code Blue cold-weather emergency, a measure that relaxes capacity limits at homeless shelters to ensure no one is left outdoors overnight during freezing conditions.
The wide forecast range quickly sparked mockery on social media, with users questioning its usefulness and others joking that it appeared designed to cover nearly any outcome. Some commentators suggested the cautious estimate reflected lessons learned from past City Hall controversies over storm preparedness.
City officials said preparations were already underway. Mamdani said crews would begin pre-treating highways and major streets ahead of the storm, and that workers from the New York City Department of Sanitation and other agencies would operate around the clock once snowfall begins.
The approaching system, known as Winter Storm Fern, is expected to move into the tri-state area early Sunday and could persist into Monday. Forecasters warned that heavy snowfall and icy conditions could make travel hazardous and urged residents to monitor official alerts.
If snowfall reaches a foot or more, it would be the city’s most significant storm since February 2021, when nearly 17 inches of snow fell in Central Park.
Snowstorms have historically posed political challenges for New York mayors. A storm that dropped about six inches of snow in 2018 snarled traffic and transit across the city, while a 2010 blizzard paralyzed New York for days and prompted then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg to later describe the episode as a “character-building” experience.
City officials advised residents to limit nonessential travel during the storm and to allow sanitation crews time to clear roads and sidewalks as conditions develop.
I don’t see the big deal here. He’s just repeating what the weather forecasters are saying. This isn’t the thing to mock him about. There’s other issues to do that about.
At least he called them unhoused that will make everyone much safer! What’s up with changing it from homeless to unhoused anyway kind of the same thing? Like illegal alien and undocumented what’s the difference so we don’t offend other white liberals?
Here’s a certain forecast, an avalanche of screw ups is incoming. With his slew of DEI appointments, you need to brace for a cluster bomb of incompetence.
Hey, give the guy a break. He’s not used to snow, there isn’t much of it in his home country of Uganda.
Funny how the same people mocking the New York mayor over a snow prediction were silent when Donald Trump literally altered a hurricane map with a Sharpie to avoid admitting he was wrong. One was a forecast that changed; the other was falsifying emergency information during a crisis. If that didn’t outrage them then, the mockery now rings hollow.
Unhoused?
More appropriate for him to give a forecast about bombs.
We are so lucky to have this over qualified genious run , typo ruin our city