Good chilly Thursday morning to you.
Some of the best things in life come from Canada — poutine, Neil Young, polar bears.
But also, frigid air masses. These may cramp your fall style for the next week or two.
We’re not quite like Casper, Wyo., where it was 26 below on Wednesday, or Marquette, Mich., which got three feet of snow.
Still, after today’s high of near 50, the forecast calls for six days with lows near or below freezing, and highs only in the 40s.
And a trace of snow overnight tonight, starting as rain.
Slate’s resident meteorologist, Eric Holthaus, blames an interruption of normal airflow patterns called an Omega Block.
An unmoving system up north is forcing the jet stream to detour far to the south. Hello, frosty nights.
So is this the onset of an early, brutal winter?
Depends on whom you ask.
The National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center says chances of above-normal temperatures for the region in December, January and February are slightly above average.
But New York Metro Weather, an upstart site run by young meteorologists, begs to differ.
Their reasons have something to do with sea-surface temperature anomalies, October Greenland blocking and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.
The bottom line, writes John Homenuk of New York Metro Weather: “Our confidence, in fact, is fairly high that this winter will average below normal temperature and feature more snow than normal.”
We’ll see who’s right. For now, bundle up.
Here’s what else you need to know.
COMING UP TODAY
• Mayor de Blasio opens the city’s annual Procurement Fair for would-be city contractors downtown, at 9:10 a.m.
• A city councilman introduces a bill to criminalize police choke holds. The mayor opposes it, saying the move might be necessary in a life-or-death struggle.
• “Glittering World,” an exhibit of Navajo jewelry, opens at the National Museum of the American Indian. [Free]
• A debate on legalizing assisted suicide, with the philosopher Peter Singer, the president of the British Medical Association, and others, at Merkin Concert Hall. 6:45 p.m. [$40 or Live stream]
• Ken Burns talks about the Roosevelts and “The Roosevelts” at Barnes & Noble on 82nd and Broadway. 7 p.m. [Free]
• The weeklong Doc NYC documentary festival opens. [Varying sites and prices]
• So does the four-night New York City Horror Film Festival, at TriBeCa Cinemas. [Prices vary]
• Rangers host Avalanche, 7 p.m. (MSG). Nets at Warriors, 10:30 p.m. (TNT).
• For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.
COMMUTE
• L.I.R.R., Metro-North, N.J. Transit, Amtrak
• Roads: Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.
• Alternate-side parking: in effect till Thanksgiving.
• Air travel: La Guardia, J.F.K., Newark.
IN THE NEWS
• Two window washers spent an hour dangling 69 stories up at 1 World Trade Center after their rig malfunctioned. [New York Times]
• Universal prekindergarten beat its first-year enrollment target, with 53,200 students. [Daily News]
• Dense fog and a “rough night” made the mayor late to a Flight 587 memorial service. [New York Times] “Wake Up, Bill!” reads the cover of The Post.
• Mr. de Blasio’s liberal base is not thrilled with some of his recent policies on crime and policing. [New York Times]
• A guide to open enrollment for Obamacare, which begins Saturday. [Daily Intelligencer]
• Claiming innocence has historically hurt an inmate’s chances for parole, but that is changing. [New York Times]
• An offer you may refuse: The Staten Island mansion immortalized in “The Godfather” is on the market for $2,895,000. [DNAinfo]
• What is up with women begging with young children on the streets of Manhattan? The I-Team went digging. [NBC]
• A 1963 Warhol painting of Elvis Presley pointing a gun sold for nearly $82 million. [New York Times]
• Scoreboard: Magic eludes Knicks, 97-95. Suns eclipse Nets, 112-104.
• For a global look at what’s happening, see Your Thursday Briefing.
AND FINALLY …
Early in November, a detective was waiting for the train at 149th Street station in the Bronx when he heard one youth tell another where “some coke” might be bought.
The detective made a mental note of the address and sent colleagues there the next day.
The year was 1913, and a drug bust was in the works.
At a rooming house on Morris Avenue, detectives found eight men in a back room on the second floor.
“None of them,” The Times reported, “could give a satisfactory reason for his presence.” Each was found to be in possession of a box of cocaine.
“A closer search of the room disclosed some 300 boxes more.”
The eight men were convicted on this date 101 years ago.
Kenneth Rosen contributed reporting.
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