
JANUARY
1 - The morning low of 7° was the coldest reading on New Year's Day in 100 years, when it was -4° in 1918. Today was also the seventh day in a row with a high of 32° or colder (the long such streak time since Feb. 2014) and the sixth consecutive day with a high of 25° or colder (the first time since Jan. 1981).
4 - A powerful coastal storm produced near whiteout conditions late in the morning, with snow accumulating close to ten inches by the time it ended later in the afternoon. (Much of Long Island and towns along the Jersey shore were buried under 12" to 15".) Today's snow easily broke the previous record for snowfall on this date, which was 4.0" - and today's accumulation of 9.8" was slightly more than last winter's biggest snowfall (9.4"). Temperatures held in the mid-20s throughout the storm; wind gusts between 35-45 mph produced wind chills in the single digits. The snow and wind kept LaGuardia Airport closed for much of the day while JFK didn't reopen until the following morning. Today was also the tenth consecutive day in which the high was colder than 32°, making this the longest such streak since one of 12 days in January 2003.
6 - Today was the twelfth day in a row with a high colder than 32°, and it was the coldest of them all, with a high/low of just 13/6. And while Feb. 14, 2016 had a colder mean temperature (high/low of 15/-1), today's high was the coldest since Jan. 16, 1994, when it was just 10°.
7 - Today, with a frigid high/low of 18/5, was the thirteenth day in a row with a high below 32°. This tied it with another 13-day streak during the winter of of 2001 for second longest on record (in the years since 1900). This winter's streak, however, had much colder temperatures, with an average high of 22/13 (sixteen degrees below average) versus 30/19 for the 2001 streak.
8 - Today, with a high/low of 31/17, was the fourteenth day in a row with a high of 32° or colder, making it the third longest cold streak on record (behind a 16-day streak in the winter of 1961 and a 15-day streak in the winter of 1881). Today's high was somewhat of a surprise because last week the high forecast for today was 40°, and even today the forecast was for a high of 33°. The average high/low during these two weeks was 23/13, fifteen degrees below average.
12 - The temperature rose to 61°, just five days after a low of 5°. This mild air streamed in as a storm system approached from the west, bringing periods of rain that amounted to slightly more than a half inch (much less than the two inches that had been predicted). Temperatures were at 55° or milder from daybreak until early the following morning on 1/13.
13 - Between 6AM and 10AM the temperature nosedived from 58° to 28°, and by midnight it had fallen to 19° (and by 6AM on 1/14 the temperature had fallen to 15°). This somewhat mirrored the plummeting temperature on this date 100 years ago.
15 - Today's high of 30° was the nineteenth so far this winter that was 32° or colder, the most by mid-January since the winter of 1981. (The typical number for an entire winter is seventeen.) In the past 100 years only three winters have had more freezing or colder high temperatures: 1977 (25), 1918 (23) and 1981 (21).
FEBRUARY
4 - Nearly one inch of rain fell tonight, mostly between 5:00 and 11PM. This was the biggest rainstorm since the end of October when more than three inches fell (the biggest rainstorm of 2017).
10 - The 0.58" of rain that fell today brought February's precipitation to 2.62", which was more than the entire month of January (2.18"), December (2.21") or November (1.58"). Today's rain was the third significant rainfall this week (and more was expected for tomorrow).
11 - Yesterday's rain continued through early evening, adding 1.21" to yesterday's amount for a total of 1.79". This was nearly the same amount that fell from two storms last week, on 2/4 (0.96") and 2/7 (0.85"). The heaviest rain fell in the early afternoon when 0.35" poured down between 1:00 and 2:00. Temperatures, which had hovered in the upper 40s since yesterday, jumped from 47° at 1PM to 62° shortly before 5PM - the mildest reading since the end of November.
12 - For the second day in a row the high reached 62° (twenty-one degrees above average), but while yesterday's high occurred in the early evening, today's was reached shortly after 1:30 AM. Today's high also tied the record for the date. These were the first back-to-back readings in the 60s since the first week of November.
17 - Despite the temperature going no lower than 33°, a heavy, wet snow accumulated 4.4" between 5PM and midnight. This came at the end of a week that had three days with highs of 62° and one with a high of 58° (yesterday).
20 - Overcast skies in the morning gave way to sunshine by lunchtime and the temperature soared to 67°, the warmest reading since Nov. 3. This was the fourth day this month with a high of 60°, making it the third February in a row with four or more such days - a record streak. This followed three Februarys in a row with no highs in the 60s.
21 - Today's high soared to 78°, breaking the previous record by ten degrees. This was the warmest reading ever reported during the month of February; the warmest reading previously was 75°, which occurred in 1930 and again in 1985. Lastly, this was only the eleventh time a reading in the 70s was reported in February at Central Park (on average, the mildest temperature in February is around 60°).
25 - This was the eleventh day of the past twelve to have measurable precipitation. The 0.73" of rain that fell this morning through early afternoon today was the most to fall during this 12-day period (2.01" fell in total). Today was also the seventeenth day this month with measurable precipitation, the most since December 2012. Additionally, this number of days tied February 1884 for the most days of precipitation in February.
MARCH
2 - The day after March came in like a lamb (high of 60°), a fierce nor'easter battered the area. Throughout the day the City was lashed by a wind-driven mix of rain and wet snow that amounted to 2.24" (0.38" of it fell last night). And although Manhattan was spared gale force winds (peak gust was 34 mph), gusts of 50-70 mph were common at the three major airports, on Long Island, the Jersey shore, and southern New England.
7 - A nor'easter that produced heavy, wet snow left far less in New York than had been predicted, while many suburbs in New Jersey and the Hudson Valley were buried by one to two feet of snow. (This was the second March in a row to have an under performing snowstorm in NYC.) Despite snow falling steadily from late morning (accompanied by thunder) until 8PM, just 3.2" was measured in Central Park (but it was the first snowfall of an inch or more on this date since 1969). This was largely due to temperatures that stayed above freezing for the entire event. Curiously, the snowfall forecast had been adjusted upward later in the morning to 8-12". Despite the modest snowfall, the amount of liquid that fell amounted to 1.41".
17 - Although today's high of 48° was close to average, the morning low was a nippy 27°. This broke a twelve-day string of days with lows that ranged from 30° to 33°. It was also the first low colder than 30° in a month (2/17), and the coldest since 2/13 (26°).
18 - The weekend featured clear skies and very low humidity. Yesterday afternoon it ranged between 22%-25% while today it was even lower, falling to 15% during lunchtime. Today was also the twelfth day in a row with below average temperatures.
21 - Snow began falling shortly after daybreak and continued for the rest of the day into the wee hours of 3/21. By midnight 8.2" had accumulated, making this one of the biggest snowstorms to occur after March 15 (an additional 0.2" fell after midnight). This was the fourth nor'easter this month, but the first in which the temperature was 32° or colder in New York.
22 - Less than twelve hours after the last snowflakes from yesterday's snowstorm fell around dawn, skies were clear and the temperature rose to 50°. Although this was slightly below average, it was the mildest reading since March 1 (when the high reached 60°). Today was also the sixteenth day in a row with below average temperatures; the last time there was a streak this long was in April 2007.
28 - Today, with a high/low of 52/38 (one degree below average) was the 22nd day in a row with a below average mean temperature, the fifth longest streak of this kind in the years since 1953 (the year the NWS began reporting departure from average on a daily basis). Temperatures during this streak, however, were just 4.5 degrees below average, which is the least below average of any streak of 15 days or longer.
APRIL
2 - A heavy, wet snow fell between 5:00 and 10:00 this morning, accumulating 5.5" - the biggest snowfall in April since the blizzard of April 6, 1982 (9.6"). Like the snowfalls of 2/17 (4.4") and 3/9 (3.2"), the temperature during this morning's snowfall remained above freezing. This was the fifth snowfall of four inches or more this season, each occurring in a different month. Today's snow brought the season total to 40.9", making this the ninth season in the past sixteen with 40 inches or more (average snowfall is 25.8").
12 - Although today's high of 63° was only a bit milder than average it was the warmest reading since Feb. 21's extraordinary high of 78°.
13 - Today's high of 82° was nearly twenty degrees warmer than yesterday's, and was nine days earlier than the typical date of a year's first 80-degree reading. And this morning's low of 60° was what the average high should be.
14 - After the temperature peaked at 77° in the middle of the afternoon a back-door cold front moved through and by midnight the temperature had dropped to 44°. This was the greatest drop in temperature since 1/13 when it plummeted from 58° to 19°.
15 - After two days of summer-like temperatures, today was windy, raw and overcast with temperatures only in the low 40s (the result of a "backdoor" cold front that moved through yesterday afternoon). And conditions became even more miserable in the evening when rain moved in and the temperature dropped into the upper 30s.
16 - The steady rain that moved in last night continued through noon today, heavy at times, and accompanied by winds that gusted to 43 mph. Total rainfall was 3.29", 2.82" which poured down this morning, with more than half falling in the three-hours between 7:30 and 10:30 (1.54"). This was the greatest 24-hour rainfall in four years, since nearly five inches flooded the city on 4/30 in 2014. As today's rain exited the temperature jumped fourteen degrees in the hour between 11AM and noon (from 46° to 60°).
22 - On a mostly clear day, with afternoon temperatures in the mid-to-upper 60s, the humidity dropped to 13% for a few hours in mid-afternoon. This was the lowest humidity level in New York since March of last year, when it fell to 12% on 3/5. Typical afternoon humidity (on a day without rain) is around 45%.