LibertyBell

Back to bright and sunny on Sunday One day of rain is fine, multiple days is a bad pattern.

a new record for Central Park too Chris?

yes, average vs absolute.

no NYC plus JFK Real feel aren't actual temperatures any more than wind chill is though. It's just a subjective measure of how people feel. I get a kick out of seeing my digital thermometer hit triple digits or go below zero. The only time I saw it go below zero was in January 1994. (I didn't have one in January 1985 and we didn't go below zero here in February 2016.) We need these westerly winds to continue. 2010 and 2011 back to back were just so epic.

70.2 degrees here at 5:06 pm

we have a record drought of 100 degree highs. The last time we hit 100 here was 2013. The last time we had a 20 inch snowstorm was 2016

wow the top 3 had some great winters after they happened 2010-2013 was such an epic period for heat and snowstorms, I don't think we'll see either of those for a long time to come.

the only reason it became a problem though was because it stalled. it had nothing to do with strength. There are other types of storms that have stalled out and produced catastrophic consequences, for exampled stalled thunderstorms and stalled fronts. we seem to get more of these every year =\

Yeah I was keeping track of it because it was near my house there. State and local fire crews are battling a large brush fire of unknown origin near Jim Thorpe in Carbon County. Jacob Novitsky, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry, said the fire broke out around 4:30 p.m. Saturday along Bear Mountain, south of the Carbon County seat. Novitsky said Sunday that about 70 firefighters from the region and state are working to extinguish the blaze, which he estimated has spread to around 260 acres in the Packerton Junction area. Forestry aircraft was called to help with the blaze. “It’s still actively burning,” Novitsky said. “This is going to take a couple days, at least another two or three days, to get this buttoned up.” Top Videos Calgary fire officials concerned about dry and windy conditions -00:24 Dry weather, wind and location are making it difficult to bring the fire under control, he said. No injuries have been reported, but it is possible that homes and other buildings near the fire could be evacuated, Novitsky said. He said area rail service, including tourist trains, is still running, but the Delaware & Lehigh Canal trail is closed between Packerton Junction and Long Run Road. The fire is near Route 209 and the Lehigh River. https://www.mcall.com/2025/04/20/jim-thorpe-brush-fire-sunday-update/

omg that looks big enough to be a human.

we had smoke this morning, was there a fire in eastern PA? I read that there was.

But these were hurricanes at one point. There's a HUGE difference between a little piddly storm that never became a hurricane vs a storm that was once a hurricane. Floyd was nearly a cat 5. A little storm that just developed doesn't have the power of a storm that was once a major hurricane. You're making my case for naming noreasters (which they do with similar type storms in Europe.) We should also name atmospheric river events on the west coast (we already categorize them 1-5 just like we do with hurricanes.) If you're going to name tropical storms, noreasters and atmospheric river events should definitely also be named.

For Long Island Floyd didn't do much, it was much worse in NJ. A friend of mine came here from Greece and was like, *This is a hurricane? This is nothing but an average rainstorm! Why are you Americans so scared about everything!* I had to remind him about what a real hurricane can do here. Of course he was no longer here when Sandy came calling. If you remember Irene, Bloomberg got major flak for shutting down the city (and as a result didn't shut it down when Sandy came calling)- man, I really hated him lol. TS like Floyd and Irene characteristically cause the most damage well away from the point of landfall. NJ in the case of Floyd (in our area) and Vermont in the case of Irene. Agnes I wasn't around for at all, but wasn't that a hurricane when it made landfall? I think Floyd was still a hurricane when it made first landfall in NC. Regardless for our area anyway I don't pay much attention to tropical storms-- a historic noreaster like December 1992 causes much more damage for our area.

The real story in that dataset is how much colder and snowier la ninas of the past were! wow 1875 was a la nina? Look how snowy April 1875 was in NYC lol, four separate snowstorms including our latest on record on the 25th. 1942-43 was a la nina? It was extremely cold, -6 in February, the last time NYC was colder than -2. I think 1893-94 was also very snowy 1933-34 was a la nina too? That had our coldest temperature on record and historically cold and snowy February. 1995-96 of course speaks for itself. The real news here is not how the weather was in those neutral years but how much colder and snowier la ninas were in the past here!

wow 1875 was a la nina? Look how snowy April 1875 was in NYC lol, four separate snowstorms including our latest on record on the 25th. 1942-43 was a la nina? It was extremely cold, -6 in February, the last time NYC was colder than -2. I think 1893-94 was also very snowy 1933-34 was a la nina too? That had our coldest temperature on record and historically cold and snowy February. 1995-96 of course speaks for itself. The real news here is not how the weather was in those neutral years but how much colder and snowier la ninas were in the past here!

not 1989-90 though?

thats about flooding not winds. a TD could do that too. Any big flooding tropical rainstorm can do that.

the ridge axis building to our west was more common in the 80s and 90s up to 2002 and then again 2010-13 Chris?

It's interesting how long this westerly flow might last, it seems to have some staying power. I wonder if this is a CC response to the warming oceans and the marine heatwaves? As an example, it was 85 here yesterday and only 2 miles away in Long Beach it was 61 lol. The seabreeze front didn't even make it to Sunrise Highway lol. It would be absolutely awesome if it could do this in the summer too (maybe this is an early indicator of the summer ahead, like April 7, 2010 was for the magnificent 2010 summer?)

Chris, I have a question about the middle graph. Is that for the entire summer or just for the hottest month (July). Having an average high temperature of almost 86 seems rather high for JFK for an entire summer.

Yes, right now the neighbor's kids are more of a problem than the wind. I feel like they have a Dennis the Menace kid along with his sister, knocking over tables and food on their little hot wheels lol. The winds have calmed down a bit.

Thanks for this graph, this is exactly what I was looking for Chris! 1983, 2002 and 2010 really stand out! Do you have a similar graph for 95 degree days too?

it's telling that JFK has been warmer vs average even in April vs NYC.

I think we'll start to see a change to more westerly flow this year with a switch to -AMO and back to more of an 80s/90s pattern that we've been seeing wholesale throughout our local climate. More summers like 1980 and 1983 and 1993 and 1999 and 2002 and 2010 vs what we've seen the last few years. Thanks for this graph, this is exactly what I was looking for Chris! 1983, 2002 and 2010 really stand out! Do you have a similar graph for 95 degree days too? Our real heat comes from Sonoran Heat Release from the SW.

big difference between JFK and NYC again