New York Weather Highlights of 1990
JANUARY
29 - Although it was just 1.03", today's rainfall was enough to set a record for the date. Only two other dates have had less precipitation for their daily record: 0.86" on Sept. 9, 1904, and June 8, 1900. (April 29, 1909 was a third until 2023 when 2.46" fell.)
FEBRUARY
4 - This was the 21st day in a row with above-average temperatures. During this three-week period temperatures were 11.5 degrees above normal (high/low of 49°/36°). It was also damp as well with 4.58" of rain measured.
10 - 0.41" of rain fell in just 45 minutes (9:45-10:30 AM). In total, rain fell for twelve hours and amounted to 0.83". This was the first measurable precipitation to fall on this date in 20 years.
17 - The temperature took a nosedive, from 58° to 23° by midnight.
20 - This was the fourth day of seesaw temperatures, with highs during these four days of: 58°-38°-56°-35° (today).
25 - 1.8" of snow fell in the very early hours of the morning and then bitter cold air moved in. At midnight the temperature was down to 10° (this followed a low of 30° yesterday and 50° two days earlier). This was the first measurable snow in five weeks and the only snowfall in February. It was also the biggest accumulation of the winter (until March 6 when 3.1" fell).
26 - With a high of 25° and a low of 7°, today was the coldest day of the year, but not the coldest day of the winter as that occurred back on Dec. 23 when the high/low was 22°/6°. This was the latest date for a low in the single digits since 1967, when the mercury bottomed out at 8° on March 19. The day's high was 40 degrees colder than the high of just three days ago.
MARCH
7 - For the second year in a row on this date the morning low was a frigid 13°. However, this year's high of 35° was ten degrees warmer (but still 12 degrees below average).
13 - Winds shifted to the southwest, lifting the temperature from 43° to 85°, which was 36 degrees above average. This was the earliest date for an 80-degree reading (breaking the previous record from 1945 by a week).
14 - One day after Central Park recorded its earliest 80-degree reading on record, the warm front that delivered this extraordinary warmth retreated south of the area. Winds shifted to the northeast and by afternoon, under a bank of clouds and fog, temperatures tumbled into the mid-40s, forty degrees colder than yesterday.
15 - Similar to two days ago a shift in wind direction produced a big swing in temperature. After shifting from the chilly northeast to the balmy southwest, the temperature soared from 42° to 77°. This was a record for the date, breaking the previous record set just last year.
16 - Today's high of 82°, thirty-two degrees warmer than average, was the third record high in the past four days.
17 - Since records began the high has reached 70+ just three times on St. Patrick's Day - and two of those times occurred this year and last. Today's high was 72° - ten degrees cooler than yesterday! Rain moved in mid-afternoon and amounted to 0.67".
18 - This was the last day of an extraordinarily mild eight days in which the mean temperature was 18.5 degrees above average (high/low of 71°/47°).
24 - Today's high of 39° was thirty degrees colder than yesterday's. This was also the fourth high in the 30s this month - one more than in January.
APRIL
7 - The last snowfall of the winter fell at around daybreak, a surprise 0.6". It didn't last long, however, as the temperature rebounded into the low 50s under sunny skies. A total of 13.4" of snow fell during the winter, the third winter in a row with well below average snowfall.
8 - Today's high was 50° (eight degrees below average), yesterday's was 51° and the day before that, 52°. Today, however, had the most sunshine.
15 - 1.47" of rain fell one year after 1.41" fell on the very same date.
20 - Although showers that fell between 11 PM and midnight amounted to just 0.02", this was the first measurable precipitation to fall on this date since 1978.
27 - The temperature soared from 51° to 91°. This was the earliest date for a year's first 90-degree reading since 1977 (when it occurred on 4/12).
28 - This was the second day in a row of 90-degree weather, but unlike the previous day's low of 51° today's was 69°. The next 90-degree day wouldn't be until July 4.
30 - Today's high of 56° (ten degrees below average) was quite a drop from 73° yesterday 90° degrees two days ago.
MAY
1 - Today's high temperature of 83° turned out to be the warmest temperature of the entire month. (And the chilliest day would fall near the end of the month, on May 22, when the morning low would fall to a record 44°).
10 - A year after more than two inches of rain fell on this date, 1.67" of rain fell today, most of it coming during thunderstorms between 3-11 PM.
13 - 0.52" of rain came down in just twenty minutes during an afternoon downpour between 4:12-4:32 PM.
16 - 2.32" of rain fell, with much of it falling after 8 PM. A year earlier on the same date 2.30" fell.
29 - Beginning at 9 AM and continuing for the rest of the day 2.40" of rain fell. This was a little less than two weeks after 2.32" fell and brought the month's rainfall up to nine inches. Today's heavy rain kept the temperature well below average as the high was only 60°, fourteen degrees cooler than normal.
JUNE
16 - For the third day in a row the low temperature was 60° (three degrees below average). High temperatures, however, were very different: 68° on 6/14; 81° on 6/15; and 85° today.
30 - During a nighttime thunderstorm 0.27" fell in just five minutes and 0.69" in fifteen minutes (8:54-9:09 PM).
JULY
5 - A high of 95°/low of 76° made this the hottest day of the summer.
12 - It was a damp and chilly day as 0.56" of rain fell and the high/low of 67°/low of 58° was fourteen degrees below average.
21 - An evening thunderstorm produced 1.11" of rain in just 45 minutes (5:06-5:51 PM).
AUGUST
6 - Beginning today and continuing through Aug. 11 nearly ten inches of rain would fall. 2.30" of rain fell today, much of it before 7 AM.
7 - Like yesterday, when 1.90" of rain fell overnight, another rainstorm in the wee hours dumped 1.70" (between 11 PM yesterday thru 4 AM today).
10 - 4.64" of rain fell today, at the time the rainiest day in the years I'd been living in New York (since 1979). 1.22" fell in just half-an-hour between 6:46-7:16 PM and 2.82" fell in two hours between 6:18-8:18 PM. There have since been five greater daily amounts (most recently on Sept. 1, 2021, when 7.13" poured down).
11 - This was the last day of a six-day rainy streak in which 9.85" fell. Today 0.79" fell between 7-8 PM. More than an inch of rain fell during four of the past six days.
13 - Between 8/3 and today, a span of eleven days, AM lows fell in a narrow range, between 68° and 71°.
27 - Today was the year's last 90-degree day, on par with the average date for this occurrence. In total, the year had a dozen days in the 90s - well below the average of eighteen days.
OCTOBER
9 - Today was the warmest day of the month, with a high of 84° after a very mild morning low of 68°. Overall, the day was 16 degrees warmer than normal and fell in the midst of a streak of very mild days. During this 10-day span between Oct. 6-15 temperatures were 13 degrees above the norm). But it wasn't all sunny skies as rain fell six days in a row between Oct. 8-13, amounting to 2.88".
10 - Today was the fifth day in row with a high temperature in the 80s. (And there would be one more on the 14th.) This string of unseasonably warm weather was part of ten straight days between Oct. 6-15 that all had temperatures 10 degrees or more above average.
13 - Nearly three inches of rain fell over the past six days. These days were also unseasonably mild, 14 degrees warmer than normal. Today's low was a summer-like 69°, eighteen warmer than average.
14 - Today was the seventh day in a row in which the morning low was 66° or warmer, 15 degrees above mid-October's norm.
15 - Today was the tenth day in a row in which the daily mean temperature was 10+ degrees warmer than average - the longest such stretch in the 1970-2016 period. During these days temperatures were 13 degrees above average. This was also the thirteenth day in a row with highs in the 70s.
18 - For the third day in a row the low temperature was 52°, a few degrees milder than average. High temperatures were also very similar, but not the same (69°,72°, 73°). Today was also different from the other two days in that there was rain, with 0.85" falling during the evening.
23 - 2.53" of rain fell, beginning at 4 AM and continuing all day, ending shortly before 1 AM on 10/24. 0.80" poured down in the hour between 8:41-9:41 PM.
NOVEMBER
4 - The New York City Marathon was run in very mild conditions, with a high of 73°/58° - fifteen degrees above average. Skies were a mix of sun and clouds. This followed a day that was even warmer (78°).
10 - An all-day rain amounted to 1.70", making it the rainiest Nov. 10 on record. It accounted for much of the month's total precipitation (2.82").
24 - Today and the next three days' lows were: 44° (today)-43°-44°-43° (five degrees above average). The day's high temperatures, however, exhibited no pattern.
29 - A cold front produced showers mostly between 1-2 AM, amounting to 0.11". This rain brought November's total precipitation to 2.82", the tenth time a month has had this exact amount - the most times a monthly amount has been repeated (through June 2022).
DECEMBER
22 - After a very mild low of 58° (twenty-eight degrees above average!), the afternoon high inched up by only three degrees.
23 - It was a record-setting mild day as the high reached 66° after a low of 57° - a staggering 28 degrees above average.
24 - High temperatures over the past four days averaged 62°, twenty-one degrees above average. Today's high was 63°.
25 - Today's high was a frosty 31°, the first day of the winter with a high temperature of 32° or colder.
28 - Today's 7.2" snowfall (which began late last night), was the first snowfall of the winter, the largest accumulation in nearly four years (since January 1987) and the biggest December snowfall since 1960. Snow ended shortly before 11 AM.
To read highlights from other years between 1970 and 2023 double click here.
Here in the U.K., 1989 and 1990 were two back-to-back record warm years, the likes of which had not been seen before. It seems to me that we weren't alone in that switch. I always find great interest the great switch from a very cold December in 1989 to a very mild rest of the winter. A somewhat similar story in the U.K. as well to a lesser degree - a cold month across Scotland but mild elsewhere, then blowtorch mild conditions throughout the rest of the winter. Indeed, January-March 1990 are still unprecedented to this day for the amount of record warm temperatures and persistence and lack of cold snaps - it seems that was a similar feature in N.Y. too. Regular bouts of warmer than average weather produced an exceptional heatwave in early May and particularly early August and more normal temperatures didn't return until November. In the record books, how does 1990 hold up against some of the warm years of the 21st century?
Posted by: Henry | 07/30/2022 at 12:22 PM
At the time, 1990 was NYC's warmest year, but it's now ranked third, behind 2012 and 2020. It's just 0.01 degree cooler than 2020, and 0.01 milder than 1991. Although the summer of 1990 was slightly cooler than average, January, February, October and December were well above average.
Posted by: Rob | 07/30/2022 at 02:04 PM