The entire city subway system will shut down at 11 p.m. Monday — and city drivers will face arrest if they venture out onto streets themselves — amid a massive blizzard, authorities said.

“It is already very, very difficult out there,” said Gov. Cuomo in an press conference at his Manhattan office Monday afternoon.
“The feeling is the storm has gotten worse and to protect the [subway] system … [we’re] closing the system at 11 o’clock, putting the cars in a safe place, and then we’ll be prepared to open the system when ready.”

As for when the trains would be back running, “Whatever we’re looking at now we think will be exponentially worse tomorrow morning,” Cuomo said, but, “We will monitor it tomorrow morning, early” to see when they can be brought back on line.
“I’d rather err on the side of caution. I don’t even think it’s a tough call,” he added.
City schools also will be closed Tuesday as Gotham braces for what “will most likely be one of the worst blizzards in the history of New York City,” said Mayor de Blasio at the Brooklyn headquarters of the Office of Emergency Management.
“You cannot underestimate this storm. This is not a typical storm. It’s going to pack a real punch,” the mayor said.
“The latest forecast we have still has us around 2 feet of snow, but again, we have learned in past storms, that can change at any time. We are preparing for at least what that forecast is projecting, if not worse.
“Some storms come in in a measured manner,” de Blasio said. “This is going to come in in a sudden spurt of activity. … We cannot be caught off guard.
“The best thing to do is stay indoors, stay off of the road, stay off the sidewalks.In the next hours, we want people who can get home to get home early.
“As the evening progresses and the snow intensifies, it will not be an optional matter,” the mayor warned. “At 11 o’clock tonight, our streets will only be available to emergency vehicles … and we will continue that emergency declaration” until further notice.
“You cannot be on the roads after 11 p.m.,” he said.

Cuomo had noted earlier that “the blizzard brings with it very high winds, gusts up to 50 mph, and that’s what makes the situation dangerous and difficult. It’s the snow combined with the wind.”
Express subway service will be stopped starting after 8 p.m. and then eased to a complete halt by 11 p.m., officials said.
Cuomo said he has declared a state of emergency and was deploying national guardsmen to help with conditions, particularly in the city and on Long Island.
Non-essential state workers were being released at 3 p.m. to go home, the governor said.
The state also issued a travel ban on all main roads starting at 11 p.m.
Anyone in violation can be charged with a misdemeanor and face a fine of up to $300, Cuomo said.
“We have had situations where people have gotten stuck on roads and snowed in and been in theirs cars 12, 18, 24 hours,” Cuomo said.

“It could be a matter of life and death, so caution is required.
“At 4 o’clock, 5 o’clock, 6 o’clock tonight, you want to be home, and you want to stay home.”
MTA Chairman Tom Prendergast added, “This is an extremely serious storm. … And tomorrow will be an extremely difficult day.”
La Guardia and Newark airports were shut down as thousands of flights in and out of New York were already cancelled.
Morning commuters were greeted by a light dusting of snowfall that got progressively worse throughout the day. Blizzard conditions are expected to hit by 10 p.m. and continue through Tuesday’s morning commute, forecasters said.
“There’s going to be enough snow to slow travel tonight – but that’ll be nothing like what we’ll see tomorrow morning,” AccuWeather meteorologist Tom Kines warned on Monday.
As much as 36 inches of snow could blanket New York before the storm lets up by Tuesday night, according to City Hall.

De Blasio said the city was adding 40 percent more ambulances Monday to deal with potential emergencies.
Meanwhile, city sanitation employees have been working around the clock and will be rushing to clear 6,000 miles of street — or the distance to Los Angeles and back, he said.

“As we accumulate 2 inches of snow on any given street, the snow plows swing into action,” the mayor said.
City parks are being closed at 6 p.m. for safety, he added.
Broadway shows also were cancelled.
Metro-North was getting an early getaway schedule Monday afternoon, similar to the Thanksgiving eve.
There were to be extra outbound trains between 1 and 4 p.m., regular service from 4 to 5 p.m. and fewer trains than a regular rush between 5 and 8 p.m.
All LIRR waiting rooms will be open around the clock, system wide, until at least Friday.
The MTA stores extra train cars underground, on express tracks.
About 1,500 cabs will be on the roads to pick up, for free, first responders, the elderly and disabled, courtesy of The Greater New York Taxi Association. The rides can be arranged through 311.
But it won’t be easy to get around no matter what — the lower level of the Manhattan Bridge was already being closed by early afternoon because of the weather threat.
City Hall tweeted Monday: “The safest thing to do in the face of today’s storm is to stay off the roads, take mass transit home early, and stay indoors.”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie declared a state of emergency there and announced that mass transit would shut down in the state starting at 10 p.m.

Only twice has New York City gotten at least 2 feet of snow — 26.4 inches on Dec. 26-27 of 1947, and 26.9 inches Feb. 11-12, 2006, city officials said.
And once the snow falls on New York streets, it’ll stick for days thanks to sub-freezing temperatures.
The mercury will top out at 29 degrees and 26 degrees on Monday and Tuesday, respectively, according to AccuWeather. But with high winds, the real-feel of those days will be closer to zero, forecasters said Monday.
Public school campuses opened Monday, but field trips and extracurricular activities were cancelled.
In Connecticut, Gov. Dannel Malloy said the state was banning travel on its roads starting at 9 p.m.
“Do not plan on traveling unless absolutely necessary from Monday evening through the duration of the storm,” Malloy said.