New York Weather Highlights of 1982
JANUARY
1 - It was a wet first day of the year as an inch of rain fell through mid-afternoon.
4 - 2.73" inches of rain fell, almost all of it during the morning. At one point 0.75" fell in just 30 minutes between 9:30-10 AM. This was a record amount of rain for the date and the City's biggest rainstorm since July 29, 1980 when 3.47" fell.
10 - 2.21" of rain poured down between 4-10 AM with the greatest downpour being in the last hour when 0.72" fell.
13 - A late afternoon/nighttime snowstorm that dumped 5.8" on New York was the same winter system that affected Washington, DC earlier in the afternoon when an Air Florida jet crashed into the Potomac River minutes after takeoff, killing 78. Today's snow was the last time measurable snow fell on this date (through 2024).
14 - A quick-moving clipper system dumped 3.5" of snow during the afternoon, one day after 5.8" fell.
17 - From a frigid 19° just after midnight, the temperature fell steadily all day long and by midnight the official thermometer in Central Park was at zero degrees. (Five years earlier on this date the low was a record 2° below zero.) This outbreak came just five days after another Arctic outbreak that produced lows in the single digits for three days in a row.
18 - This was the coldest day of the winter, with a high/low of 15°/0°. The AM low was a record for the date.
19 - New York City's 18-month drought emergency was lifted today. Although 1981, with 38 inches of precipitation, was the driest year since 1970, precipitation in December was above average (5.18") and January 1982 would receive 6.46".
22 - Today's high was 18° (after a morning low of 8°), the sixth time in the past two weeks that the high was colder than 20°.
27 - Today was the seventh day this month with a morning low in the single digits. It was also the sixteenth day of the past twenty to have a high temperature of 32° or colder. 12 inches of snow fell during this nearly three-week period.
FEBRUARY
15 - Today was Presidents' Day and the high/low of 57°/34° was one degree milder than the high/low reported last year on the holiday (which fell on 2/16). Years later nearly identical temperatures would also occur on Presidents' Day 2010 and 2009, which fell on the same dates as '82 and '81. Temperatures were colder, with the highs being the same (40°) and the lows one degree apart (28° and 27°).
25 - Today's high was 28°, the only day in February with a below-freezing high temperature. This was in contrast to January which had sixteen days that stayed below freezing for the entire day.
APRIL
3 - 0.84" of rain fell in a 60-minute period between 5:55-6:55 PM. 1.86" fell during the entire day.
6 - Just 1.1" of snow had fallen in February and March when a blizzard dumped 9.6" of snow on the City today, less than a week before Easter. More than a foot fell in New Jersey and Westchester County. The storm started as rain in the pre-dawn hours and changed over to snow mid-morning and lasted through late afternoon. By midnight the temperature had fallen to a record low 21°. This was the most snow to fall so late in the season since ten inches fell on April 3, 1915. To watch news coverage from WABC during the blizzard click here .
7 - In the aftermath of yesterday's snowstorm, the morning low was 21°, twenty-one degrees below average and the coldest reading so late in the year since April 1, 1923 (when the temperature dropped to 12°). Today's afternoon high of 30° was the latest date for a below-freezing high.
18 - This was the eighteenth day in a row in which no high temperature was duplicated. During these days the highs ranged from 30° to 72°.
MAY
22 - The 0.10" of rain that fell this afternoon was the first on this date since 1970. It was also a chilly day, seven degrees below average, with a high/low of 60°/53°.
JUNE
7 - Rain fell during 14 of the past 17 days (and the last eight days in a row), amounting to 3.81". Just 0.03" of rain fell today and it was over by 3 AM.
13 - It was a damp and very cool day as 1.65" of rain fell and the high was just 55°, twenty-three degrees below average. Only three degrees separated the high from the morning low.
16 - After a warm and sticky day with a high of 87°/low of 68°, thunderstorms moved in after dark. The rain came down heaviest between 10 PM-midnight when 0.58" fell.
JULY
8 - Today was the first 90-degree day of the year, the latest date for this occurrence since 1960 - and one of the latest on record (1985 would see an even later date). Typically, New York's first 90-degree reading occurs at the end of May. (Last year's first 90-degree day was on June 16, the latest since 1963.)
18 - Today was the hottest day of the summer, with a high of 98° after a low of 78°.
20 - During a mid-day thunderstorm 0.58" of rain fell from 11 AM-noon; in a five-minute period between 10:57-11:02 AM 0.32" poured down. This storm snapped a four-day heat wave. Afternoon highs during 7/16-19 were: 92°-92°-98°-96°.
27 - Today was the last 90-degree day of the year. It came one month earlier than the usual date for this occurrence and was the sixth earliest occurrence on record (the five earliest occurrences were between 1871-1902; 1982 would fall to seventh after the summer of 1986). This summer's eleven 90-degree days were concentrated in the past twenty days. During this nearly three-week period the average high/low was 89°/73°, 4.4 degrees above average.
28 - 2.18" of rain fell, with half of it pouring down in a one-hour period between 4:20-5:20 PM. And within that hour 0.55" fell in the fifteen minutes that began at 4 PM. Today's rain accounted for two-thirds of the month's total.
AUGUST
23 - 0.70" of rain fell from 1-2 PM during a strong thunderstorm; within that hour 0.45" poured down in five minutes (1:45-1:50 PM).
25 - 1.53" of rain fell between 6-8 AM with 0.91" falling during the second hour.
OCTOBER
9 - A cold front moved through during the morning, but before it did the temperature was in the 70s for a few hours after midnight, making this the ninth day in a row with a high in the 70s. During this string of mild days (five which had highs of 77° or warmer) the average high was 76°, eight above average.
NOVEMBER
2 - Today's afternoon high of 79° was 20 degrees warmer than average.
4 - For the fourth day in a row the morning low was an unseasonably mild 62° (eighteen degrees above average, and three degrees milder than the typical high ). Today was also the fourth day in a row with a high in the 70s: 77°-79°-74°-72° (today). These four lows are the most in the 60s of any November.
DECEMBER
4 - Today's high of 72° set a record that held only until 1998.
6 - The day's very mild high of 67° occurred shortly after daybreak. This was thirty-two degrees above the average temperature for that time of day. And while the temperature fell slowly throughout the day, it was still 56° at midnight.
8 - Over the past nine days the high/low temperatures averaged 60°/50°, sixteen degrees milder than average.
9 - Five days after a record-setting high of 72° the temperature took a nosedive to 19° by midnight tonight.
12 - Three inches of snow fell during the morning, the first snowfall of the winter (and eight days after a record high of 72° degrees). Less snow would fall in the next eight weeks combined than fell today.
25 - Two years after the coldest Christmas Day on record, today's high of 64° tied 1889 as the mildest Christmas on record. It was also eight degrees milder than Easter Sunday.
26 - For a second day in a row a record high was set as today's high temperature reached 63°.
29 - Today's high was 65°, the seventh day this month with a high in the 60s. It was also the eleventh day with a mean temperature 15 degrees or more above average. Additionally, although just 0.02" of rain fell today, it was the first measurable precipitation on this date in fifteen years.
To read highlights from other years between 1970 and 2023 double click here.
April 7, 1982 also tied for the coldest high in April
Posted by: Guttmana9 | 10/21/2022 at 05:25 PM