More Snow, Ice For Hudson Valley As Coronavirus Vaccines Delayed

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — Light snow Friday across the region will gradually fade away, but not without compounding problems for local residents with coronavirus vaccination appointments (see forecast and snow and ice total estimates below).

The winter storms that have repeatedly crossed the United States, dumping much of it into a deep freeze, have delayed the manufacture and shipment of the vaccine, the federal government announced.

Nearly all the (300,000 or so) vaccine doses allocated for Week 10 have been delayed, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement issued Thursday night.

"Every dose that should have shipped on Monday was held back, and only a limited number of Pfizer vaccines left shipping facilities on Tuesday and Wednesday," he said.

The New York Department of Health is working with local health departments, hospitals, pharmacies, and FQHCs to minimize the impact on their operations and reduce the number of appointments that must be rescheduled, Cuomo said.

The problem is so widespread that Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced he would consider sending National Guard units to pick up his state's allocation of doses from the manufacturing facilities, which are in the southern states. However, because of the extreme weather the plants are experiencing staff shortages, according to some news reports.

Locally, the storm advisories are now set to end at 4 p.m. in the mid-Hudson and at 7 p.m. in the lower valley, and until then snow-covered roads and sidewalks will make for slippery travel conditions.

Long on duration but short on accumulation — that's the current storm in a nutshell.

So far the National Weather Service's final estimates are holding for the lower Hudson Valley, which received 3-4 inches of snow Thursday. Friday, an additional 1-2 inches are possible, the NWS said. That is, snow for Orange County, mixed precipitation elsewhere.

For the mid-Hudson, which was limited to a dusting to a couple of inches of snow on Thursday, another inch or so is possible, according to the National Weather Service.

Hudson Valley Weather thinks there may be rather more. "Truth be told, a lot more 2 to 5 inch totals at the end of the day, but we shall see how it unfolds," said Alex Marra and Bill Potter of Hudson Valley Weather.

Just to give an idea of how much snow fell in the lower Hudson Valley, here are the NWS reports from yesterday afternoon:

Rockland County

• SOUTH NYACK - 3.8 inches reported at 2:17 p.m.
• STONY POINT - 3.5
• CHESTNUT RIDGE - 3.5
• NYACK - 3.2
• NEW CITY 3.0

Westchester County

• ARMONK - 5.0 inches reported at 3 p.m.
• 2 SSE HAWTHORNE - 4.0
• WHITE PLAINS - 4.0
• HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON - 4.0
• CROTON-ON-HUDSON - 3.8
• DOBBS FERRY - 3.5
• 3 NNW GOLDEN'S BRIDGE - 3.2
• NEW ROCHELLE - 3.0

The brunt of the storm hit southern Connecticut, which got 5-6 inches of snow Thursday and should be hit with another couple of inches of snow and ice Friday, Long Island, where 3-6 inches of snow and ice Thursday wreaked havoc on the roadways, and Monmouth County in New Jersey, where the storm dumped 9 inches of snow.