Winter weather ‘roller coaster’ on the way for New Yorkers

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Not that we exactly have a choice.

The Big Apple and its environs are slated to get more snow than last winter, most of it after the turn of the year, Accuweather meteorologists predicted Wednesday.

New York City’s winter is “shaping up to be a roller coaster ride,” meteorologist Brian Lada said in an advisory.

Between 18 and 23 inches of snow are predicted to fall in New York City this season, below the normal of 29.8 inches but more than last year, Lada said.

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These bouts will come with less frequency – rather than the typical 11 to 12 days of a tenth of an inch or more, the prediction this year is for six to nine days with perceptible snowfall.

The first half of winter we can expect dollops of cold, snowy weather interspersed with milder dry conditions, according to Accuweather. But the second half of the season will most likely bring “Arctic outbreaks and snow,” with at least one probable nor’easter.

“The more significant snowfall chances are more likely later in January and again toward late winter,” said Paul Pastelok, AccuWeather’s lead long-range forecaster.

Even with the snow, the season will be the warmest in three years, Accuweather said. Temperatures of at least 2 degrees above normal, which are likely overall, have not been seen in two years.

This month’s crippling lake-effect snowstorm in Western New York notwithstanding, winter overall is set to be milder than in years past, according to both Accuweather and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.