Still, some parents were determined to give their children a taste of what winter used to be like.
At Fort Tryon Park’s Billings Lawn, a popular upper Manhattan sledging spot, Gunther Tielemans, his son Oberon, 7, and daughter, Ada, 5, had the place to themselves while snow froze hay bumpers in the bottom of the hill.
Mr. Tielemans and his children, whom he and his wife study at home, walked about eight hundred meters up the hill. He said he was surprised that no one else was sledding, although he acknowledged that the hill would be more crowded soon.
“It’s strange,” he said of the silence, which soon dissipated when the family’s sleigh expedition gave way to a snowball fight.
On another nearby hill, Kathy Saxby, an ESL teacher, was enjoying a sledge before her 56th birthday on Tuesday. She laughed as a friend drove sleds in an improvised “Happy Birthday” choir.
It was a joyful moment that Mrs. Saxby, a New Zealand native, said she was looking forward to.
“There is a feeling of fun and joy and things that are missing lately,” she said.
The report was contributed by Téa Kvetenadze, Sean Piccoli, Ed Shanahan, Emmett Lindner, Daniel E. Slotnik, Tracey Tully and Mihir Zaveri.