December 13-14 winter storm December 16, 2025

It’s been nearly five years since Long Island had a major winter storm before the winter solstice. That storm began as rain on the night of Saturday, December 13, and ended as several hours of powdery snow on Sunday, December 14. It finally ceased at noon, and contrary to my belief while watching it fall, this was not a wet snow. Wet snow doesn’t sprinkle into fluff when you toss it in the air with a shovel. More on that later.

Rightly expecting the worst, I rearranged items in the garage Friday afternoon (December 12). I moved the snow blower to the front of the garage and placed two shovels and three scrapers on the front porch.

As usual, the end result went against what was initially forecast, and what the winter weather advisory first called for. 1 to 3 inches became 2 to 5 with locally heavier pockets of 6 inches. Even that was low, at least for Nassau and Suffolk Counties. The further north and east you went, more snow accumulated on the ground. I measured 6 3/4 inches on the front yard grass with my 12″ ruler before shoveling at 11:40 AM. Adding whatever fell in my first 20 minutes outside, I estimate 7 inches of snow accumulated in my section of Wantagh. The same amount was officially reported by the National Weather Service in Levittown, East Massapequa, Bethpage, Glen Cove, and Jericho.

So, it was a good thing I planned ahead on Friday, except for bringing out a bag of rock salt.

My current sleep pattern sometimes has me going to bed in the early evening, and that was the case on Saturday. I went to sleep at 5:30 PM and was in and out of sleep until 4:30 AM. After catching up on DVR’d content, I began my photographic timeline.

From 8:17 to 8:20 AM, I took a series of videos with one of my camcorders (overcoming two system errors), and pieced them together in Adobe Premiere Pro.

I’d grown impatient by 11:30 AM. Even though the weather radar indicated the clearing line had not yet reached Eastern Nassau, I geared up to start shoveling. Within minutes, my dad Bill prepped the snow blower for use. Once the machine was working, Dad went to work.

These photos were taken between 11:59 AM and 12:07 PM on my iPhone 17 Pro (which is why I didn’t watermark them).

I shoveled by the garage and on the left side of the house. I stopped while Dad used the snow blower before shoveling further at the curb, clearing snow off Dad and Mom’s cars, and shoveling as much of what I’d cleared unless it was too packed in to move.

The after photos:

There was a brief period of snow showers after I came inside, thankfully with no accumulation.

Temperatures are below freezing as I type this last paragraph on the afternoon of Monday, December 15, but milder weather and rain are in the forecast starting Wednesday. That will go a long way in melting and washing away Sunday’s snow.

Does this storm mean we’re in for a busy winter? Only time will tell. Until I recap the next one(s), thank you for reading.