“It may seem kind of quaint in the morning, but it’s going to get a lot worse as the day goes by,” said John Homenuk, a meteorologist at New York Metro Weather.

The temperature will hover around freezing, and strong wind gusts of nearly 40 miles an hour could make it feel as cold as 15 degrees.

If the forecast holds, this could be the biggest spring snowstorm in our city’s history.

New York City’s largest snowstorm after the vernal equinox was on April 3, 1915, when 10 inches fell.

This nor’easter is forecast to drop more snow on New York City than the previous storms this month, the last of which killed two people and left hundreds of thousands in the region without power. Power failures are possible throughout the day. Broadway shows will go on as planned, but city libraries are shuttered today.

Like earlier this month, we could see some thundersnow, and lots of sleet. What is sleet, exactly?

“Sometimes what happens is that, in between a cloud that’s producing snowflakes and the ground, you get a layer of warm air,” Mr. Homenuk said. “The snowflake from the cloud melts into a raindrop in the warm layer, and then passes back into freezing air, and then it refreezes into like an ice pellet.”

(Unlike freezing rain, which freezes after it hits the ground.)

“When it’s sleeting, you will know,” he added. “Sleet stings. It pings you. It’s not as gentle as a snowflake.”