New Yorkers had been warned to expect a meteorological apocalypse, with predictions of one of the largest blizzards in the history of New York City.
The subway was closed, cars ordered off the roads and people told to stay indoors.
But for New York City, as it turns out, the storm that hit the north-eastern United States brought far more anxiety than actual snow.
A state of emergency was declared in several north-eastern U-S states, thousands of flights were cancelled, and public officials like New York mayor Bill De Blasio put everyone on notice.
But New York City was spared what some called the feared Snowmageddon.
The U-S National Weather Service says its forecast was wrong, but it stresses rapidly deepening winter storms are very challenging to predict.
Mayor de Blasio says he did the right thing by putting everyone on alert.
"Now we had consistently -- not just for yesterday, but for several days -- reports talking about two feet or more of snow. Again, that would have instantly put us into one of the top snowstorms in the history of the city. To me, it was a no-brainer. We had to take precautions to keep people safe."
Bill de Blasio says it is better to be safe than sorry.
"God forbid this storm had not moved, you know, what was ultimately 20, 30 miles to the east in our case. We would have then been hit by that incredible magnitude of storm, and, had people not been off the roads, it would have been a lot of people in danger and probably some people would have lost their lives. We can't take that risk. We're making decisions about people's lives. We have to protect our people."
The states of Massachusetts and Connecticut did get significant snow, with as much as 60 centimetres in some places.
And on parts of New York's Long Island, between 51 and 76 centimetres fell.
SBS reporter Nick Vindin arrived in New York City as the snowstorm blew in.
"I think everyone was pretty happy to be inconvenienced and to play it safe, because these snowstorms can get out of hand so quickly. So I think the Mayor's spot-on there. People, they probably did feel like they dodged a bit of a bullet. Now, today, the thing that most New Yorkers were dodging was snowballs. The kids were out having had school suspended today and yesterday, and they were out frolicking in the snow, having a wonderful time. New Yorkers were out shovelling snow. I was walking around near Madison Square Garden, and it did feel a bit like a ghost town, but those that were out were having a very good time."
For these two New Yorkers, the snow was definitely an anti-climax.
"The storm was not that bad as they talked about it. I truly ... I didn't believe it was such a kind of big deal. It's usual. New Yorkers, they handle bigger storms than this one. Well, it's not a bad one. Bad one was ... you know, 1947 was a big one. 1947, that's the one I'll remember."
That is because, unlike this snowstorm, the Blizzard of 1947 was a major weather event.
This old newsreel captured that one ...
"New York is staggered and, for a time, helpless, but not for long. The energetic process of pushing and digging out begins. From Times Square to the suburbs, a check-up shows the storm surpassed the historic blizzard of 1888 by five frosty inches. From now on, it'll be remembered as The Storm of '47."
The biggest snowfall to date came during the storm of February 2006, when 69 centimetres fell and it snowed continuously for 16 hours.
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