New York Weather Highlights of 1988
JANUARY
4 - Woke up to 5.8" of snow that fell overnight. It was the winter's biggest snowfall.
5 - Today was the 15th day in a row in which no high temperature was duplicated. During these days the highs ranged from 21° to 59°.
8 - Beginning early this morning, and continuing for 24 hours, light snow fell steadily and accumulated 5.4".
14 - This was the coldest day of the winter, with a high/low of 17°/5°, twenty-one degrees colder than average.
15 - A second day in a row with a low temperature of 5° above zero. (Yesterday was the coldest day as its high was 17° while today's was 26°.) Seventeen of the past eighteen days had below normal temperatures, with an average high/low of 31°/17°, eight degrees colder than average. Ten days had morning lows of 15° or colder.
FEBRUARY
1 - After a morning low of 50°, more typical of late April, the high reached 62°. The day's mean temperature was 24 degrees milder than average.
7 - Since Feb. 1 low temperatures were in steady decline: 50° (2/1)-34°-28°-22°-19°-14°-9° (today).
27 - A raw Saturday with periods of wet snow that accumulated 0.6", which was the last snowfall of the winter. In total, just 18" of snow fell all winter (eleven inches below average).
MARCH
24 - After a nippy low of 17° two days earlier, today's high was a record-setting 76°. These were also the temperature extremes for the month.
26 - After a three-day cold snap between the 20th and 22nd in which temperatures were 13 degrees colder than average (high/low of 39°/21°), the past three days were 14 degrees milder than average (68°/48°).
APRIL
5 - The Yankees' home opener was played under sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s. Today's high reached 73°, sixteen degrees above average and the mildest reading of the month. The Yankees wouldn't play another home opener with temperatures in the 70s until 2017.
MAY
5 - 0.83" of rain fell in three hours between 4-7 PM. 1.11" fell for the entire day.
9 - The 0.01" of rain that fell between 9-10 PM on this chilly day (high/low of 61°/47°) was the first measurable rain on this date in ten years.
23 - Today was the first 80-degree day of the year, tying 1984 for the latest date of this occurrence (for the period 1970-2020). However, despite this late date the summer would be a very hot one, with thirty-two 90-degree days.
31 - For the third year in a row the high reached the 90s on this date. Today's high of 91° was also the first ninety-degree day of the year; thirty-one more would follow in the next eleven weeks (thru Aug. 15).
JUNE
2 - Today's high of 63° was twenty-seven degrees cooler than yesterday's high of 90°.
12 - This was the first of twelve consecutive days of above average temperatures, seven of which had highs in the 90s, including today's 90°. Temperatures averaged 7.5 degrees above average during this extended hot spell.
15 - For the second day in a row the high was 96°.
16 - This was the fifth day in a row with 90-degree temperatures, the longest spell of hot weather since a seven-day heat wave in July 1983. The average high during these five days was 93°.
21 - The high today was a blistering 97°. This was the first reading in the 90s on this date since 1966 (which was the third year in a row with a high in the 90s).
22 - Today's high hit 98°, a record for the date and the hottest reading in June since 1966 when the mercury shot up to 101° on June 27.
JULY
1 - In the midst of a scorching summer (and one of the hottest Julys on record), today's low of 53° was the second coolest temperature ever reported in July (the coolest reading was 52° degrees on July 1, 1943).
5 - For a third day in a row the high was 88°.
6 - A six-week heat wave began, with twenty-three days of 90-degree temperatures. The average high and low during these days was 91°/73°.
11 - Today's high of 98° was a record for the date.
15 - A thundershower between midnight-1AM brought 0.14" of rain, the first of twelve days of rain during the next fourteen. A total of 7.44" of rain would fall in Central Park during this wet two-week period. Also, today's high of 93° was the eighth 90-degree reading of the past ten days.
17 - After a steamy afternoon high of 94° degrees, an inch of rain poured down in an hour during an early evening thunderstorm between 5:40-6:40 PM.
18 - For the third year in a row on this date (and in seven of the past nine years) the high reached into the 90s.
19 - 0.54" of rain thundered down in fifteen minutes between 7:38-7:53 PM. By 1 AM 1.20" of rain had fallen. Today's high was 89°, snapping a six-day streak of 90-degree high temperatures.
21 - In the past five days more than five inches of rain fell during tropical downpours. Today 1.65" poured down between 6 PM-midnight. This was also the eighteenth day in a row with above-average temperatures. Sixteen of the days had highs of 88° or hotter.
28 - Rain fell on twelve of the past fourteen days, amounting to 7.44" (and rain fell on fifteen of the past twenty days measuring 8.13"). It was a tropical wetness as as eight days had highs in the 90s and twelve hit 88° or above.
30 - Today's high topped out at 98°, a record for the date. Later in the day I escaped the heat by leaving on vacation in the Canadian Rockies (where a few inches of snow fell four days later near Lake Louise).
AUGUST
6 - Today and the past three days all had a high temperature of 89°. And the past three days also had the same low of 76° (today's low was 75°).
14 - Today was the hottest day of a very hot summer with a high/low of 99°/80°, fourteen degrees above average.
15 - Today's high was 97°, the thirty-second, and last, 90-degree day of the year. (Of the ten years with 30 or more days in the 90s/100s this is the earliest date for the last 90+ reading.) It was also the eighteenth day in a row in which the high temperature was 87° or hotter (twelve of these days were in the 90s). During this two-and-a-half week period temperatures were eight degrees above average. The morning low the past four days averaged 80°. Today's low tied 1985 for the latest date for a low in the 80s (later broken in 2018, when a low of 81° occurred on 8/29.)
17 - The 0.14" of rain that fell today was the first rainfall this month; quite a contrast from July, which was the ninth wettest on record (now ranked tenth). Today was was also the 24th day in a row with a high temperature of 85° or warmer, the longest such streak in the 1979-2014 period (later tied in 1995).
18 - This was the twenty-first day in a row with above-average temperatures. During these three weeks twelve days had highs in the 90s; temperatures were seven degrees warmer than normal.
24 - Half of the month's rain fell today in two hours between 4-6 PM when 1.11" fell.
SEPTEMBER
2 - 0.33" of rain fell in a 10-minute period between 7:18-7:28 PM.
OCTOBER
8 - Since Oct. 2 low temperatures fell steadily: 63°-56°-55°-48°-45°-43°-37° (today). The last three mornings were well below average.
14 - Temperatures over the past nine days were 10 degrees colder than average (high/low 58°/42°). Four of the days had morning lows of 37°, three of which were record lows for the date.
31 - This morning's low of 31° was the earliest sub-freezing reading since 1976.
NOVEMBER
1 - A steady, cold rain between 8 AM and 8 PM amounted to 1.69", a record for the date. This was the first measurable rain to fall on this date since 1973.
9 - The high today was 55°, one day after a high of 56° and two days after the high was 57°.
20 - 3.37" of rain fell, a record for the date. It came down heaviest during a 45-minute period between 7:34-8:19 PM when 0.56" poured down.
DECEMBER
1- Morning lows between Nov. 28 and today were: 39°-37°-39°-37° (today), all a few degrees above average.
11 - A blustery and very cold day. With a high of 29° (15 degrees colder than average), today was the first day of the winter with a maximum temperature below freezing. And by midnight the temperature had plummeted to 12°.
12 - This morning's low of 5° above zero, a record for the date, was the coldest reading so early in December since a low of 3° way back on Dec. 10, 1876. It tied Jan. 14 and 15 as coldest reading of the year. This extremely cold day (the high was only 20°) was part of a prolonged 10-day cold snap in which temperatures averaged 10 degrees below average. Six of the days had high temperatures below freezing.
13 - The first snow of the season fell, a dusting of 0.3". It was the only snow to fall in December, and just 7.8" more would fall for the rest of the winter. It continued to be quite cold, with a high/low of 29°/16°.
20 - This was the 22nd consecutive day with no measurable precipitation. (Curiously, although 0.3" of snow was measured on 12/13, it was recorded in Central Park as just a "trace" of liquid precipitation.) The dry spell began at the end of November, a month in which 8.90" of rain fell. December would end with just 1.13" of precipitation.
25 - This was the third Christmas Day in a row with a mild high of 53°.
28 - After a nine-day stretch between Dec. 10-18 when temperatures were nearly 11 degrees colder than normal, temperatures rebounded and the next nine days (today was the last) were 8 degrees milder than average.
To read highlights from other years between 1970 and 2021 double click here.
This fall (Sep. 1-Nov. 30) had fifty-three days with a reading colder than 50°, the most that any fall season has had since 1943, and the last time there was more was in the fall of 1925, when there were fifty-nine. Interestingly, the summers of 1943 and this year were quite hot, with twenty-eight and thirty-two days in the nineties/triple digits respectively (and 1925 had a typical number of such hot days with seventeen).
Posted by: William | 09/14/2018 at 08:56 AM