Today in New York Weather History: Mother's Day Weather Highlights

 

 

 

1914 (May 10)

The first Mother's Day to be observed as a national holiday was a beauty, with sunny skies and a high of 77°.

 

1924 (May 11)

With a high/low of 49°/44°, this is the only Mother's Day in which temperatures never got out of the 40s.  It was a breezy day, with late afternoon showers (0.25" was measured).

 

1961 (May 14)

It was a delightful day with a high of 83° under partly cloudy skies.

 

1969 (May 11)

This was the fourth Mother's Day in a row with a high in the low-to-mid 60s and a low around 50°.  Each year also had some measurable rain.

 

1970 (May 10)

Today's high was 93°, making this the hottest Mother's Day on record. This came three days after a low of 38°.

 

1975 (May 11)

Today's high/low of 72°/53° (slightly above average) was identical to last year's Mother's Day.  One big difference between the two is that no rain fell this year while 0.53" fell during the evening of Mother's Day 1974.

 

1977 (May 8)

A year after the chilliest reading on Mother's Day in the years since 1960 (42°) an even colder reading occurred, but it didn't happen until after 10 PM when an Arctic front moved through and dropped the temperature to 38° by midnight.  Earlier in the day the high had reached a slightly below average 64° under clear skies.    

 

1978 (May 14)

The biggest rainstorm of the year dumped 3.58" of rain thru 3 AM on 5/15.  It came down heaviest between 10:30 AM and 4:00 PM when 2.53" fell.  The 3.38" that fell today was a record for the date, and the most to fall on any Mother's Day.

 

1987 (May 10)

With a high of 90°, this was the second hottest Mother's Day on record (a 30-degree rebound from the morning low).  This was 20 degrees above normal.  However, because the humidity was low the heat wasn't too uncomfortable.  

 

1991 (May 12)

Mostly sunny and quite warm, with a high of 89°.

 

1993 (May 9)

Bright sunshine, low humidity, and a light breeze from out of the west/southwest propelled the temperature from 55° to 89°.  

 

1996 (May 12)

A strong cold front moved through last night and the temperature this afternoon was only in the upper 50s - after being in the mid-80s on Saturday.

 

1998 (May 10)

A truly miserable day as a steady all-day rain amounted to nearly two inches.  The high was only 58°.  During the four-day period between May 8-11, 4.32" of rain fell.

 

2000 (May 14)

Today's high/low of 73°/56°, a few degrees above average, was the same as Mother's Day last year.

 

 

2010 (May 9)

A very chilly day with a high of only 52°, seventeen degrees below average.  The morning low of 44° was the chilliest reading on Mother's Day since 1977.  (Until 2019 when the low was 43°.)

 

2011 (May 8)

It was a pretty day with a high of 74°, five degrees milder than average.  Bright sunshine in the morning gave way to a mix of sun and puffy cumulus clouds during the afternoon.     

 

2012 (May 13)

This was one of the warmest Mother's Days in a while as the afternoon high topped out at 81°, eleven degrees above average, under partly cloudy skies.  Today's high was the warmest in four weeks. 

 

2014 (May 11)

Today's high topped that of Mother's Day 2012 by one degree, making it the warmest since 1993. 

 

2015 (May 10)

Partly cloudy and on the humid side.  The high of 83° was one degree warmer than last year's Mother's Day.

 

2016 (May 8)

After having highs of 70° or warmer during the previous five Mother's Days (four of which were in the 74°-83° range), today's fell back to a more seasonable 65°, which made it the chilliest MD since 2010 (when the high was only 52°).  However, after a period of rain around daybreak the sun broke through late in the morning and the afternoon was nice and sunny, breaking a week-long streak of overcast skies.

 

2018 (May 13)

It was a dismal holiday, with light showers, drizzle and fog throughout the day (but just 0.10" was measured).  The high of 54° was the coolest reading in eight years on the holiday, and there was just a two-degree difference between the day's high and low.

2019 (May 12)

A nor'easter brought a cold, all-day rain.  Temperatures fell through the day, from the upper 50s just after midnight to the 40s by daybreak, where they stayed for the rest of the day (bottoming out at 43° as midnight approached).  This was just the second Mother's Day to have temperatures in the 40s for the entire afternoon (the other, in 1924, had temperatures in the 40s for the entire day).  1.32" of rain was measured, the fifth time an inch or more of rain fell on Mother's Day (and one of those dates, in 1946, was also 5/12). 

 

2020 (May 10)

For the third year in a row Mother's Day had well below average temperatures.  This year, the low of 39° was the chilliest reading on Mother's Day since 1977 (low of 38°).  However, unlike the previous two years skies were sunny and the temperature rose to 64°.  Although this was five degrees cooler than average, last year's afternoon temperatures were only in the mid-40s, and the year before that they were in the mid-50s. 

 

2023 (May 14)

With a high/low of 74°/59° (four degrees above average) this was the mildest Mother's Day in eight years when the high/low was 83°/61° (eleven degrees above average).

 

2024 (May 12)

After a morning of light showers and drizzle (0.15" was measured), the afternoon was mostly overcast.  Temperatures were unseasonably cool, with a high/low of 57°/48°, nine degrees chillier than average.

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Comments

[William]

did 2018 set some kind of record for the Mother's Day with the most narrow range between the high and low temperature?

[scott]

Mothers day 1972 if I recall was a big rainstorm!

[Rob]

0.91" was measured in Central Park, with most of it falling after 10 PM. Of the 1.57" that fell on Mother's Day (5/14) and the next day, 1.37" of it fell between 10 PM and 2 AM.