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New York Weather Highlights of 2003
New York Weather Highlights of 2005

New York Weather Highlights of 2004

 

2004

 

JANUARY

5 - This was the fifteenth day in a row with temperatures well above average.  During this string of days the high averaged 50°, which is more typical of mid-March.  However, this period would be followed by an Arctic air mass that would stay entrenched over the Northeast for four weeks. 

10 - This was the coldest day of the winter with a high/low of 15°/1° (24 degrees below average).  The morning low was the coldest in 10 years (and the day's mean temperature of 8° made this the coldest day of the 21st century).

14 - Typically, based on a 1:10 water-to-snow conversion ratio, today's 0.15" of liquid precipitation should have produced 1.5 inches of snow.  However, because it was such a frigid day (high of 17°/low of 9°) with low humidity this amount of precipitation produced 5.7" of fluffy snow.  The snow began last night and continued until just before daybreak.

15 - The day's high of 18°/low of +2 made it the second coldest day of the winter, just behind the 15°/1° of five days earlier.

16 - This morning's low of 1° above zero tied January 10th's low as coldest temperature of the winter - and the coldest reading in ten years (since a low of minus 2° on the morning of Jan. 19, 1994).  Today was also the sixth day of the past eight with a low in the single digits.  (Through the winter of 2015 this morning's low is the coldest of the 21st century.)

25 - Today was the eighth day out of the past seventeen with a morning low in the single digits. 

27 - This was the fifth day in a row in which the high temperature was below 25°.  The highs on these days were 20°, 23°, 19°, 22° and 24° (today).  Snow moved in after 8:00 PM and by the time it ended early the next morning 10.3" inches of powdery snow had accumulated (six inches of it fell tonight).  

31 - Although the first five days of the month were 15 degrees milder than average, this ended up being the coldest January since 1977.  Twenty of the past twenty-five days had high temperatures of freezing or colder and were 11 degrees below normal.  And today was no different, with a high/low of 28/15.

 

FEBRUARY

2 - Today was the 28th day in a row with colder than average temperatures.  During this four-week period temperatures were 10 degrees below normal.

3 - This was the 29th day in a row in which the low temperature was 32° or colder, the longest such streak since December 1989.  Later in the day a cold rain (the high temperature was 38 degrees) fell during the afternoon, amounting to 0.96".

29 - Today's high of 59° was the mildest reading in three months.

 

MARCH

12 - For the fourth morning in a row the low temperature was 35°.   

16 - Today's weather was a drastic change from yesterday's upper 50s as temperatures fell below freezing by late morning and then a late winter storm dumped 3.5" of snow on the City during the afternoon (up to seven inches fell in the suburbs).  The snow was blown around by winds gusting to 40 mph, which created lots of traffic problems.

17 - Today's high of 31° (19 degrees colder than normal) was the the first time since 1967 the high temperature stayed below freezing on St. Patrick's Day.  There was also a light accumulation of snow (0.5"), just the eleventh measurable snowfall on the holiday since 1870.   

18 - A mixture of snow, sleet and freezing rain during the morning accumulated just under an inch and was the final ice/snow of the winter.  This was the second winter in a row with more than 40 inches of snow, the first time that's happened since the winters of 1947-48 and 1948-49.

 

APRIL

12 - Not a great day for the Mets home opener as rain moved in after 2 PM and continued for the rest of the day (0.55" was measured).  Temperatures were in the low 50s.  However, the Mets won, scoring early and held off the Braves 10-6.  

19 - The afternoon temperature soared to 85° after a morning low of 48°.  This was the sixth time a diurnal variation of 33 degrees or more occurred on 4/19 - the most of calendar date (later matched by 4/25 in 2009). 

 

MAY

12 - 1.45" of rain fell, with most of it falling between 1-7 PM.  The air had a tropical feel to it as the high/low was 86°/65°. 

13 - For the third day in a row the high was an unseasonably warm 86°, seventeen degrees above average.  

15 - After a sultry high of 87° (sixteen degrees above average) the day ended with heavy rain between 9 PM-midnight that amounted to 1.16".  Although it wasn't a tremendous amount, today's rainfall set a record for the date, breaking 1898's record by 0.02".

 

JUNE

9 - Today's high was 91°, the hottest reading of the year, and the first of just two 90-degree days all summer (the other would be on Aug. 28).  Only four other years had 91° or 90° as their hottest reading: 1884, 1889, 1902 and 1960.  A typical summer has eighteen days in the 90s.

17 - After a muggy afternoon in which the high reached 87°, 0.57" of rain poured down during a thunderstorm between 4-5 PM.  More thundershowers popped up later and an additional 0.42" fell.  

20 - Today was Father's Day and the morning low of 57° was the same as that on Father's Day 1997 and 1992, the coolest readings on the holiday in the 1970-2019 period.

25 - 0.95" of rain fell from thundershowers between 5-10 PM.  Rain was heaviest at the onset when 0.53" fell in the initial hour (5-6 PM).

 

JULY

2 - Today's high of 87° turned out to be the warmest reading of the month (two other days also hit 87°).  This was only the third July in the past fifty years with no 90-degree days (later joined by 2009).

5 - 0.59" of rain fell down between 3-4 AM.

13 - 2.21" of rain fell in a 24-hour period that began yesterday afternoon and ended today at noon.  Today's high was only 69°, fifteen degrees cooler than average.

23 - 2.32" of rain fell, with three especially heavy one-hour downpours: 0.57" between 10-11 AM; 0.50" from 3-4 PM (including 0.31" during one five-minute period); and 0.40" between 9-10 PM.

27 - 1.36" of rain fell between 4 PM-midnight.  Under overcast skies the high was only 71° after a low of 68°. 

 

AUGUST

11 - 0.59" of rain fell between 1-2 PM, an amount that was greater than what had fallen in the past two weeks.

28 - Today was only the second day this summer to have a high temperature in the 90s.  It was also the last day (the first was back on June 8).  This was the fewest number of 90-degree days since the summer of 1902, which had just one.  A typical year sees eighteen days in the 90s.

 

SEPTEMBER

8 - Heavy rain (3.77") from tropical storm Frances flooded the area shortly before morning rush hour (most fell between 4-7:00 AM).  1.76" fell between 5-6:00 AM.  Frances' effects were felt here three days after it made landfall as a slow-moving category 2 hurricane on Florida's East coast. 

18 - 2.18" of rain fell during the morning, most of it between 8-10 AM, as the remnants of Hurricane Ivan moved through.  Ivan's rainfall was much heavier in Pennsylvania and upstate New York.  Damage wise, the storm was one of the five costliest hurricanes (until 2010's Hurricane Irene pushed it down to sixth).     

28 - Three weeks after the remnants of Frances and ten days after Ivan, the remnants of a third tropical storm, Hurricane Jeanne, moved through.  By the time its rain ended the following morning 4.66" had fallen, the most from a storm system since tropical storm Floyd dumped 5.44" in 1999.  The rain that fell today, 3.84", was a record for the date and brought the month's total to 11.41" making this the rainiest September since 1934. 

 

OCTOBER

19 - Damp and chilly with a high of 51°/low of 48°.  The 0.70" of rain that fell accounted for more than half of the month's paltry total of 1.15".  This followed a very wet September (11.51").

 

NOVEMBER

25 - It was a mild Thanksgiving Day through early afternoon, with temperatures in the 60s during the morning hours, but after the temperature peaked at 65° a cold front moved through and the mercury fell 30 degrees by midnight.

 

DECEMBER

10 - Just two degrees separated today's morning low of 45° and the afternoon high of 47°.  This tiny diurnal variation was largely due to overcast skies and light rain during much of the day (0.41" was measured).

19 - An Arctic front moved through later in the afternoon and the temperature plunged from 47° to 21° by midnight.  The season's first snow fell between 9 PM-3 AM, but it was just 0.6".  

20 - Brrr, today's high/low of 21°/11° was twenty degrees colder than average and the coldest day of the month.  It was also the coldest day in December in eleven years since a high/low of 20°/10° on Dec. 27, 1993.

27 - The winter's first snowfall of one inch or more fell between 2:00 and 6:00 this morning, accumulating 1.8".  The rest of the day was quite cold, with a high/low of 29°/19°.

 

Chart - 2004 hottest and coldest

 

To read highlights from other years between 1970 and 2021 double click here. 

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Dan "Vulture" Felder

I was on a plane that almost crashed during a very stormy 12/23/2004, the Thursday before Christmas. I remember the captain saying "brace for ditching."

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