New York City unveils heat and cold safety plan after deadly snap
After at least 23 winter deaths, New York City moved to protect 1.4 million outdoor workers and residents without air conditioning from deadly heat and cold.
New York City moved to turn the city’s deadliest cold snap into a broader climate safety plan after at least 16 people died outdoors during the freeze and seven more died from hypothermia-related causes in private homes. The winter toll intensified scrutiny of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration and its response to prolonged below-freezing weather, especially for unhoused New Yorkers, seniors, workers and people living without reliable heat or air-conditioning.
By Feb. 2, 2026, Mamdani said at least 16 people had died outdoors during the extreme cold period. Preliminary findings from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner tied hypothermia to 13 of those deaths, while three appeared overdose-related. Another report added seven more deaths from hypothermia-related causes at private residences, lifting the winter death toll to nearly two dozen or more.
City Hall is now pairing that winter reckoning with a summer warning. New York City Emergency Management says more than 500 New Yorkers die prematurely each year from preventable heat illness, and city guidance says most heat-related deaths happen after exposure to heat indoors without air-conditioning. That has pushed extreme heat to the center of public-safety planning alongside cold.
On June 22, Mamdani signed an executive order directing a whole-of-government response to protect workers from extreme heat. The mayor’s office described it as the first initiative of its kind in city history. The order was built around the 1.4 million New Yorkers who work outdoors and called for multilingual guidance, agency heat-illness prevention plans and new public-health research.
Officials also activated the city’s heat emergency plan ahead of an unseasonable warm spell. The plan relies on cooling centers, emergency alerts and public guidance telling residents to seek air-conditioned spaces, protect seniors and people with chronic health problems and sign up for Notify NYC alerts by texting NOTIFYNYC to 692-692. That response reflects a city trying to close the gaps exposed by the cold snap, when the most vulnerable New Yorkers were left facing lethal temperatures at home and on the street.
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