Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul issued a State of Emergency ahead of extreme cold and a massive winter storm set to impact areas statewide this weekend. Extreme cold moves in Friday night, with statewide feels-like temperatures in the negatives Friday and Saturday night. Sunday morning, a large winter storm will begin to impact the state and continue until Monday, with New York City, Long Island, the Hudson Valley, the Capital Region, Southern Tier, Mohawk Valley, lower North Country and parts of Central New York seeing the potential for 12 to 18 inches of snow. Western New York and the upper North Country will see snowfall totals of six to 12 inches.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Good morning everyone. First of all, I want to acknowledge the acting Commissioner of the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, Terry O'Leary, Commissioner of the DOT Marie Therese Dominguez, Executive Director of the New York State Thruway Authority Frank Hoare, Major Robert McConnell from the New York State Police, and Jackie Bray, the Director of State Operations.

And there's only one reason we're gathered here this morning is to send out the alarm. Alert all New Yorkers that we are heading into a very, very dangerous weather event that is unfolding later today and throughout this weekend into Monday. Throughout every corner of the state, no state will be immune from feeling the effect of Mother Nature's wrath on this weekend. So we warned about an extreme weather event yesterday. That event has arrived. It's intensifying as we speak.

Now, we're used to winter in New York. We're in Albany today. I'm from Buffalo, and I was in New York City yesterday. We think we're ready for this, but when you get complacent, that's when you get into trouble. So I'm here to say this is a very dangerous combination of heavy snow and extreme, extreme cold temperatures. And the risks are so intense that as I'm standing here right now, I'm declaring a State of Emergency throughout the entire State of New York.

And what that'll allow us to do is to coordinate and work closely with local governments, deploy state resources into municipalities without the lag of time required. So this will ensure that all of our local partners and agencies have the resources they need to keep New Yorkers safe and to get through this weather event. It allows us to suspend certain laws that would be other related to procurement, et cetera.

So right now, here's the bad news. Temperatures across New York are plummeting. By tomorrow night we'll be experiencing some of the most dangerous cold we've seen in years. And if you're heading up to the North Country or you're living in that beautiful part of our state, you better bundle up. You'll be experiencing minus 40 to minus 50 degree wind chills. The rest of the state - real feel temperatures will feel like below zero tonight and tomorrow. Down to a negative minus 20 all across the I-90 corridor from Buffalo to Albany will feel like it's below zero and also down minus 20. And even in Downstate, the temperature will feel like minus 10 Hudson Valley, minus 10 in New York City and Long Island. And that is not something that part of our state is accustomed to.

So what are you worried about? What am I worried about? Frostbite. Frostbite can set in literally within five minutes of exposure as well as hypothermia. So the conditions - the symptoms of hypothermia are poor coordination, slurred speech, exhaustion, shivering. Let's first of all try to prevent being in this situation, but if you must be outside and you're with other people, pay attention to those signs because that means they're experiencing a serious health event. So we got the extreme cold - bundle up.

Let's talk about the volume of snow. We're seeing lake effect snow falling off of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, the Tug Hill area of our state in Watertown, we'll see one to two feet off of Lake Erie, up to 18 inches in the Southern tier- Buffalo, only four to six. I'm not sure they'll even notice, but Buffalo's prepared.

But we're tracking another large storm system. It can begin impacting New York as early as Saturday night. Snow is expected all day - Saturday, Sunday, into Monday, and also our forecasts have been upgraded or downgraded, depending on your perspective. We're expecting more snow than they were talking about even 24 hours ago, so pay attention to these totals. 12 to 18 inches of snow possible across Long Island, New York City, Hudson Valley Capital Region, Southern Tier, Mohawk Valley, and Central New York. The rest of the state could see upwards of a foot of snow.

Up to a foot of snow Downstate, it could be paralyzing in a dense area like New York City. They have not seen snow totals like this in years. But the good news is - one good side of this is, I always ask about what are the winds expected to be? Because if you have the combination of snow that is falling, but also high winds or hurricane force winds, as we've seen in many of our blizzards, that creates a condition of extreme whiteouts. That's when you cannot see on the New York State Thruway, that's when people are more at risk of going off the road or into a ditch. So the good news is, we don't expect a high volume of winds throughout the state, but there will be surges of squalls of upwards of 25 to 35 miles an hour. So that can happen.

Let's talk about how we can protect people. I've authorized all state employees to work remotely on Monday. I encourage other employers to do the same, just to keep people off the roads and think about this: The fewer people on the roads, the more our great team led by Commissioner Dominguez, can be out there salting and clearing the snow and making the roads safer for those particularly emergency vehicles that must be out there. So let's focus on that.

Also, we have a number of special elections across the State of New York on February 3rd due to vacancies that occurred, and so we'll be suspending early voting. Sunday is supposed to be the first day of early voting. We'll be suspending that on Sunday with the possibility of Monday, as well in the New York City races. There is also a special election in Buffalo, but I don't believe the weather will be severe enough to affect this early voting on Sunday in Buffalo.

Let's focus on New York City. The Board of Elections will be notifying the individuals in those three voting districts- in those three areas - as to additional hours to make up for the loss of early voting. They'll be adding more hours to the time period before the February 3rd election. I want to make sure we get that information out there as well.

So what are we asking New Yorkers to do? Keep an eye on all your forecasts. As I'm telling you today, they are changing. Follow all travel advisories and warnings from your local governments and stock up, and we don't want a run on groceries, but you do not want to be that parent who ran out of peanut butter on Sunday night and have to go out into the bitter cold to buy it. I've been that parent. You do not want to do that. So what I'm saying is go to the grocery store, stock up on food, water, baby food, pet food. Make sure you do not have any reason to go out into the extreme colds as it unfolds over Sunday and Monday.

Anything you need to get your prescriptions filled. Do it right now. This minute. Get all your prescriptions filled as well. Also fill up your gas tanks. When the weather drops as low as it's going to go, you do not want to be standing out there pumping your gas - that five or six minutes outside could literally be dangerous for your health. So stay at home as much as possible.

Many people face an increased risk of a heart attack or cardiac arrest after shoveling snow. It happened to one of my neighbors in Buffalo. So be careful when you're shoveling snow. I can actually give demonstrations at a later event because I'm very much experienced in shoveling snow.

And there's another item. Always test your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in case you have to use indoor space heaters. Test them now. If you go outside - not just one jacket - dress in lots of layers. Take everything you own in the closet and throw it on. Cover every part of your body. Keep your skin dry.

If you have to go out, load up your vehicle. Your vehicle can save your life if you get stranded. What you need already pre-charged your cell phones, right? You want to make sure your cell phone does not lose power if you're stranded in the car. Food, water, extra blankets, flashlight. And this, as I mentioned yesterday, a pro-tip cat litter. Throw it in the trunk with a small shovel. If you go off the road, you need the traction, you throw it on the snow, allows your vehicles to get the tractions, and you might be able to save yourself out of a ditch. I speak from experience.

Make sure your home is ready as well. Protect your pipes from freezing. Use space heaters and fireplaces safely. Another pro-tip, take your towels from the bathroom. Roll them up. Stick them in front of the doors. Stop the wind from blowing in. And if you want to do this, I did it. Go out and buy those plastic sheets that you hang on the windows with your blow dryer. They work pretty well to keep the wind from the drafts from coming in and also it insulates you a little bit better. Do not use generators, grills, or camp stoves indoors.

So if your power goes out, your house is freezing, you should gather everybody in the family in as small of an area as possible. Preferably no windows or protect your windows. Just stay together. Bring all the pets, everybody together for the time being because the warmth of other human beings can literally help you warm up the other individuals. And so it's a cozy setting, but if it gets that bad, you want to keep your family safe and alive. Check on your elderly neighbors. Keep an eye on those pets. I've had to chase dogs in blizzards. It's not fun. So keep an eye on your pets. This would be the day. If they're used to running around, you might want to put them on a leash to keep an eye on them.

So this is what we're asking you to do, New Yorkers. Be ready and know that I know you're tough. I know you can handle this. I know you're not worried, but let's just get through this weekend safely and live to tell the stories about it afterward.

Well, let's tell you what the State of New York is prepared to do because this is not an exercise for us, we do this all the time. We are ready. Our state agencies are activated and coordinating, especially with our local governments, our partners in the counties and the Boroughs of New York, county managers. Our DOT and Thruway crews have been pretreating the roads already, and we have plenty of salt. I just confirmed this with Commissioner Dominguez. We are not at risk of running out of salt, which is something that could happen if you've had to use your reserve supplies with extreme weather. We are in a good place with the salt for the roads, which is good news.

Utility workers - if the power goes down - Now, we're not expecting this to be a major ice event. This is more snow light, fluffy snow coming down. But over a longer period of time, it will not be the volume of snow. It won't be four or five, six inches an hour, which can be paralyzed. It'll be an inch or two an hour - lighter snow. That is good. Not expecting ice to accompany it, which means that we should be in a good place with respect to the power lines. I always worry about ice accumulating on the power lines. One inch of ice can equate to about 700 pounds of weight on the power lines and many areas, they cannot withstand that. So we're not expecting that, but I'm preparing for the worst case scenarios here in New York. All of our utility crews, almost five and a half - or 5,600 utility workers are on standby to respond to outages wherever they occur, so we can get your power and your heat on immediately or as soon as humanly possible.

Also, our human services agencies are stepping forward to protect vulnerable New Yorkers, those who are unsheltered. We have to get people indoors and we're working closely with Code Blue and working with our local county governments on that issue as well.

Also for transportation Downstate, I have Janno Lieber right now doing a briefing on our plans to protect the subway system and transportation for New York City, New Yorkers Downstate, with the Mayor very shortly. I just spoke to the Mayor minutes ago, the Mayor of New York City, let him know that we have a Governor who's from Buffalo and if he wants any tips to give me a call, and I'll give him some of them and he's ready to go. We're looking to work very closely to coordinating and again, our State of Emergency that is now in effect to allow us to literally go into the streets of New York if they call and need our assistance with plowing or whatever they may need-any city that needs our help. We were just in Buffalo last weekend, I believe, providing this kind of mutual aid, which I think is so important. So, we'll be hearing about that shortly.

So, the MTA is going to do everything in their power to minimize disruptions, but New Yorkers should keep an eye on real time updates. If the tracks are not cleared, we're not going to let any train go down unless we know it's safe. So, we're already seeing some flight cancellations, so check in before you go to the airports as well.

And as far as our actual resources, when I said we have DOT equipment and staff and we have 1,600 large plows, 149 medium plows. We got plows everywhere. Snowblowers. Thruway equipment, 345 large and medium duty plows everywhere and 114,000 tons of salt on hand. It's a lot of salt. Good.

Lastly, I know that my team has already been doing this, but we're going to keep monitoring this storm throughout the days and nights ahead. We'll continue to update New Yorkers on exactly what we know when we know it, because my number one priority is keeping you and your family safe. And this is an event we can get through, but once the main storm and the extreme cold leaves us Monday or Tuesday. Anticipate another week of really cold temperatures, not as severe as this weekend, but we're not going to be out of this for a while. So hunker down, change your habits. Try to minimize your time outside.

And I want to say this, I am so grateful to all the workers who have to be outdoors. Whether they're working at the DOT or the Thruway Authority or the first responders who are out there doing everything they can to protect us, the nurses and healthcare personnel who have to keep showing up at their jobs let them know we appreciate them. Not everybody has the luxury of camping out and not that they'd be watching any football this weekend - I will not be - but those who want to watch football or do whatever they're going to be doing this weekend is a gift. Stay warm, stay safe. But let's always be grateful for those who are literally putting themselves out there in extreme temperatures to keep the rest of us safe.

So, with that, I'll turn it over to Acting Commissioner Terry O'Leary for further updates.

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Again for updates. If you're looking for updates, text 3-3-3-1-1-1 with your county or borough name to receive the latest emergency updates from New York State. So, that's one way to really stay on top of this unfolding storm.

Contact the Governor's Press Office