Storm Prep Sparks Spike in Cannabis Sales from New York to Maryland

Consumers visited cannabis dispensaries in record numbers last week as a power winter storm bore down on much of the United States, according to data from Lit Alerts. The impending storm led to a surge in purchases at dispensaries in New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Massachusetts, with Green Wednesday-level sales reported on Friday and Saturday, the market intelligence platform revealed on Monday.

The powerful storm system, dubbed Winter Storm Fern by the Weather Channel, swept across much of the country last weekend, dropping heavy snow, coating roads with ice and driving wind chills well below zero from the Plains to the Northeast. States issued emergency declarations as power outages spread and travel stalled. The expected scale and intensity of the storm pushed millions to prepare for long stretches indoors, which set the stage for a noticeable surge in pre‑storm cannabis buying.

In New York, sales on Friday and Saturday of last week were up 2% compared to the recent Green Wednesday and Black Friday shopping holidays. New Jersey saw a 9% spike compared to the same period, and Connecticut dispensaries experienced a 7% lift, while sales in Maryland saw a double-digit jump over Green Wednesday and Black Friday 2025. Rick Bashkoff, CEO of Lit Alerts, says the company’s data reveals trends in consumer spending leading up to the weekend storm.

“Cannabis consumers were out in droves to stock up for the storm,” Bashkoff says in a written interview with IgniteIt. “Most of the states on the East coast experienced a similar sales lift to a Green Wednesday and in some cases outperformed Green Wednesday by a long shot. In Massachusetts, the elder statesman of East Coast cannabis markets, the Saturday before the storm outpaced Green Wednesday 2025 to become the top sales day in the last 12 months.”

“In Maryland, the Friday and Saturday before the storm outpaced Green Wednesday and Black Friday combined by a whopping 20%,” he continued. “And in the newest cannabis powerhouse, New York, sales on the Friday and Saturday before the storm still outstripped Green Wed and Black Friday combined.”

Cannabis as a Staple

Bashkoff added that the data suggest that just like food, bottled water and other essentials, consumers increasingly “treat cannabis as a staple.” 

“The first indicator of this was when cannabis was deemed essential during the COVID-19 pandemic and we continue to see this play out during major weather events that consumers can prepare for such as snowstorms and hurricanes,” he explains. “Further supporting this is the fact that Lit Alerts did not observe any major changes to product preferences during the lead up to the storm (except for Maryland where pre-rolls took a dive and gave way to more flower, vape and concentrate purchases). Cannabis consumers want their mainstay products if they will be home for a few days.”

Pablo Velez, founder of the Flower Daddy dispensary in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood, says the store “had a person waiting outside before we opened at 10 am, and they bought around $200 of cannabis products.”

“He said he wanted to stock up early before the rush and before the snowstorm,” Velez writes in an email. “We saw an increase of 30% of sales compared to last Saturday. We closed on Sunday for the safety of our team, but we had customers all the way until the last minute before we closed on Saturday. Some customers told us they actually wrote down cannabis vapes in their grocery list as they were preparing for the storm.”