People hold hands in Times Square on Jan. 26, 2015 as the blizzard bore down on New York City. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Tom Liddy

MANHATTAN — New York City dodged a bullet Monday night as the worst of the winter storm never reached the five boroughs, which were covered in just a foot of snow at the highest levels, forecasters said.

It was a far cry from the 3 feet that had been predicted Sunday.

The blizzard warning was lifted for New York City Tuesday morning after the storm was pushed about 50 miles east and failed to ever reach blizzard conditions within the city, forecasters said.

The storm hit eastern Queens the hardest of any area in the city, dropping 12.1 inches in Glendale, 10.1 inches in Jamaica and nine in Forest Hills as of 10 a.m. Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

Snow topped out at 9 inches in The Bronx, 8 inches in Manhattan and Brooklyn and 7 in Staten Island, the NWS said.

"We knew there’d be a cutoff to the west of the storm. We anticipated that to be over the west of New Jersey but it ended up being over Nassau County," said the NWS' Jeffrey Tongue.

"The bulk of the tri-state area missed the bulk of this nor'easter but still with a 10-inch snowfall."

Eastern Long Island, however, reported accumulations just shy of 30 inches of snow, the NWS said.

A light snow will continue to fall on New York City until sundown Tuesday, with an accumulation between 2 and 3 inches, forecasters said.

"There’s still going to be some blowing and drifting of snow, but that’s not going to be really widespread," Tongue added.