Winter just made its first official appearance in New York City.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani activated the city’s first Code Blue of the season at 4 pm today, Friday, Nov. 13, as temperatures dip toward 36 degrees and wind chills reach freezing.
“No New Yorker should have to face the cold without somewhere safe to go,” the mayor posted on X this afternoon.
What a Code Blue means
The city calls a Code Blue when the temperature, including wind chill, is forecast to hit 32 degrees or lower.
It typically runs overnight, from 4 pm to 8 am
On a Code Blue night:
- Warming centers, drop-in centers and warming buses stay open all night for anyone who needs somewhere warm. You can find the nearest location and its hours on the city’s warming sites map.
- Outreach teams canvass the streets and subways more often, checking on people outside and connecting them to shelter.
- Shelters skip the usual intake process, so anyone can come in for the night. The Department of Homeless Services says its shelters are available citywide for people brought in by outreach teams, and walk-ins are accommodated too.
If you see someone outside who may need help, call 311 or use the 311 app and ask for homeless outreach. If someone appears to be in medical danger, call 911.
The first test of NYC’s new $25 million Code Blue system
Tonight is also the first Code Blue since Mamdani announced a $25 million expansion of the program on Nov. 9, after a winter that the city’s health commissioner called one of the coldest and snowiest in decades.
The new system scales up as the cold gets worse or lasts longer. When conditions are at their most severe, the city plans to send out:
- 300+ additional canvassers, targeting 75% of the places where homeless New Yorkers are known to stay
- Up to 55 mobile medical teams from NYC Health + Hospitals, each with a registered nurse or nurse practitioner
- 20 warming buses, eight drop-in centers and four new warming centers, with all 11 public hospitals opening as warming centers in the worst weather
- 800 new shelter beds in more than 600 single and double rooms
Tonight is a standard Code Blue, so not all of that will be deployed, but it’s the starting point for a winter the National Weather Service expects to be wetter, with more sleet, ice and heavy snow.
How to stay safe and warm at home tonight
- Check on neighbors and relatives, especially older adults, people with disabilities and anyone without reliable heat.
- No heat or hot water? Tell your super or landlord first, then call 311 if it isn’t fixed. From Oct. 1 to May 31, apartments must be at least 68 degrees during the day (6 a.m. to 10 p.m.) when it’s below 55 outside, and at least 62 degrees overnight. Hot water must reach 120 degrees year-round. The city says it will respond to every heat complaint that isn’t anonymous this winter.
- Use space heaters carefully. Keep them at least three feet from anything that can burn, plug them directly into the wall, and turn them off when you leave the room or go to sleep. Never use a stove or oven to heat your home.
- Test your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. If you smell gas or a CO alarm goes off, get out and call 911.
- Worried about your energy bill? State law protects households from utility shutoffs from Nov. 1 to Apr. 15. The New York State Department of Public Service can help at 800-342-3355.
Know the signs of hypothermia
Hypothermia can creep up slowly. Watch for confusion, slurred speech, intense shivering, drowsiness and loss of coordination. If you spot them, call 911, then move the person somewhere warm, remove any wet clothing and cover them with blankets.
Want alerts the next time the temperature drops? Text NOTIFYNYC to 692-692, and find the city’s full winter safety guide at nyc.gov/beready. For more on what Code Blue means, check out our explainer.
As the mayor put it: “Bundle up and look out for one another, New York.”
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