By this definition every day is a horrible day to bike commute in NYC, sans the melting ice, which really isn't an issue since the temperature was too high for it to refreeze. Its not any worse than riding in puddles left from the rain.

But I do agree that yesterday was a terrible day due to the influx of inexperienced fair weather cyclists. I liked it when it was freezing and I was the rare bike commuter and the bike lanes to myself! Oddly enough, I got into a cat 6 race with one of them and he sat on my wheel for about 10 blocks on 1st ave until a car was about to give me a left hook and I swerved to avoid it; he couldn't react as fast as I did and ended up wiping out trying to make a ridiculously tight turn at a high speed. I stopped and helped him up and he said he was "rusty" due to not riding in months. I told him the best thing to do when you are about to get a left/right hook is to turn with the car instead of trying to turn away from it or braking. I saw a couple more incidents like this of erratic bike handling and way too many non food delivery ninja salmons.

For NYC commuters I recommend Continental Sports Contact and/or Gatorskin. I've been running the former for nearly 4 months and I've never had a flat. For every other other tire I've ridden, flats are a monthly occurrence at best.