Where Do NYC's Rats Go During a Blizzard?
Somewhere under 22 inches of snow, millions of New York City rats are doing exactly what you'd expect: making themselves at home. Your home, specifically.
The Blizzard of 2026 dumped nearly two feet of snow on the city this weekend, with Staten Island clocking in at 24.1 inches. Governor Hochul declared a state of emergency. The MTA suspended service. Over 10,000 flights were canceled. The city ground to a halt. But the rats? The rats got busy.
They Don't Hibernate. They Relocate.
Here's the thing about rats and winter storms: they don't bunker down and wait it out. Rats can't hibernate. They stay active year-round, which means when a blizzard buries their usual food sources and floods their burrows with snowmelt, they do what any sensible New Yorker would do. They go inside.
Basements, subway tunnels, wall cavities, building foundations. Anywhere with warmth and proximity to food. Pest control experts note that rats push indoors following the first major cold snap each season, nesting in walls and crawl spaces just steps from pantries and trash bins. A blizzard accelerates that timeline dramatically.
In the two weeks before the storm, Rat Radar tracked 37 rat reports across the five boroughs, from Hamilton Heights to Staten Island. Those clusters in Brooklyn and Upper Manhattan aren't random. They line up with the city's densest residential corridors, exactly where displaced rats are most likely to seek shelter.
The Bigger Picture: More Warm Winters, More Rats
A single blizzard is rough, but temporary. The longer-term story is what happens between storms. A 2025 study published in Science Advances analyzed rat complaint data across 16 global cities and found a clear pattern: cities that are warming faster have larger increases in rats over time.
The reason is straightforward. Warmer winters mean rats spend more time above ground, foraging and breeding. A mild February gives them extra weeks of reproductive activity. As study author Jonathan Richardson told WBUR, "Where you have a particularly warm winter, those rats are likely to spend more time above ground, searching for food." National Geographic reported that NYC, along with Washington D.C., San Francisco, and Toronto, showed the strongest upward trends.
Boston saw a 53% increase in rat complaints between 2011 and 2021 alone.
So yes, a blizzard will temporarily drive rats underground and reduce breeding activity. But the warm weeks before and after the storm? That's when the population rebounds.
Meanwhile, in Boston
The blizzard didn't spare Boston either. The city recorded roughly 18 inches of snow, the MBTA suspended all service, Logan Airport shut down, and over 280,000 customers lost power across eastern Massachusetts.
The timing was especially brutal: the storm landed on opening day of Dine Out Boston, the city's biggest restaurant promotion, with 140 participating restaurants. We tracked 42 rat reports in the Boston area in the week leading up to the blizzard, including health inspection violations citing unsecured back doors and debris-filled alleyways. When restaurants reopen this week, their four-legged neighbors will be ready.
What To Watch For
If you live in NYC or Boston, the next few days are prime time for indoor rat activity. Here's what to look for:
- New droppings in basements, behind appliances, or along walls
- Gnaw marks on food packaging, wood, or wiring
- Scratching sounds at night, especially in walls or ceilings
- Burrow openings near your building's foundation once the snow melts
The snow will melt. The rats will still be here. They always are.