New York Today: Casting a Warm Spell

Damon Winter/The New York TimesAt the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the flower fairies gathered.

Updated, 10:22 a.m.

Good morning on this warm, breezy Monday.

Whatever happened to winter?

The balmy weather that blessed the weekend continues today, with a high of 74 under partly sunny skies after the present patchy fog burns off.

That will make four straight days with a high of at least 73. The last time that happened was in early October.

Thank the southwest wind that has been blowing gently but steadily our way.

But the show’s about over.

The clouds come back tonight.

Torrential rain is coming on Tuesday â€" maybe close to two inches.

Then it gets cold â€" down to 30 Tuesday night, the first time it’s gotten below freezing in almost three weeks.

Winter must have heard you wondering.

There may even be a bit of sleet.

So don’t put the overcoat away just yet.

Here’s what else you need to know.

COMMUTE

Subways Check latest status.

Rails: Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or N.J. Transit status.

Roads: Remember: The Pulaski Skyway is closed northbound. Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s and 7s or the 8s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect today but suspended Tuesday through Friday for Passover, Holy Thursday and Good Friday.

COMING UP TODAY

- A funeral in Rockaway Beach for Officer Dennis Guerra, who was fatally injured responding to an arson fire. Mayor de Blasio will speak. 11:30 a.m.

- The Brooklyn Nets hold tryouts â€" not for ballplayers, but for singers who want to perform at a playoff game. 4 p.m. at Barclays Center.

- The new roller rink in Prospect Park has opened. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. [$6, plus $5 to rent skates]

- AT&T stores begin giving away tickets to April 25 screenings at the Tribeca Film Festival.

- An Icelandic-Palestinian poet, Mazen Maarouf, reads at Columbia. 12:30 p.m. [Free]

- Akhil Sharma talks about his new book, “Family Life,” with George Packer of The New Yorker at the Center for Fiction in Midtown. 7 p.m.

- Passover starts at sundown.

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

IN THE NEWS

- A police car struck and seriously injured a 69-year-old man on the Upper West Side. [New York Times]

- A gun reported stolen in New York City in 1967 was recovered at a traffic stop in rural West Virginia. [Bluefield Daily Telegraph]

- Brooklyn and Queens, rejoice: The city’s July 4 fireworks display will return to the East River, after five years over the Hudson. [Observer]

- The Port Authority is reviewing security at the World Trade Center site after another trespassing breach on Friday. [Star-Ledger]

- Homeless people have built makeshift dwellings in the underside of the Manhattan Bridge. [New York Post]

- The hotly debated Prospect Park West bike lane in Brooklyn has caused a bit of automotive congestion but “not enough to affect the commute a lot.” [FiveThirtyEight, via Gothamist]

- Scoreboard: Yankees wear out Red Sox, 3-2. Angels destroy Mets, 14-2. Knicks butcher Bulls, 100-89. Nets bedazzle Magic, 97-88. Devils drub Bruins, 3-2. Islanders rattle Sabres, 4-3 in shootout.

AND FINALLY …

Frozen precipitation in mid-April may seem implausible. But on this date in 1950 it snowed an inch.

And people blamed the weatherman.

They had a reason: A meteorologist, Wallace Howell, had seeded clouds north of the city, hoping to end a drought.

In the Catskills, generators sent up chemical smoke particles for precipitation to form around.

Then the flakes fell.

“For several hours, the telephone wires at City Hall buzzed with calls from irked automobilists who complained of icy roads,” The Times wrote.

“They put angry blame on ‘Howell’s Snow.’”

Dr. Howell himself was more circumspect.

“It was conceivable,” he said, that he had extended a natural snowfall a bit.

Sandra E. Garcia contributed reporting.

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