Today in New York Weather History: February 15
1869 (Monday)
The City's longest-standing daily precipitation record was set today in 1869, when 2.60" of rain fell. (This amount contributed to February 1869 being the wettest February on record - and 155 years later, it still is.)
1939 (Wednesday)
The temperature dropped from 62° late in the afternoon to 29° by midnight. And by 7 AM on 2/16 it was 16°.
1943 (Monday)
Today's high was 8° after a low of -8° (third coldest low on record). No high or low since then has been colder. This was the second day this winter with a high in the single digits (the other occurred on Dec. 20, when the high/low was 8°/-4°).
1949 (Tuesday)
Today's high of 73° was a record for the date. This was 81 degrees warmer than the record low for the date (-8°), giving 2/15 the distinction of having the greatest difference between the record high and record low of any calendar date. The next time the high rose into the 70s would be on 3/25 (when it reached 75°).
Today's reading is the warmest temperature to occur in the first seven weeks of a year. And it was the earliest reading in the 70s since 1932, when the high reached 70° on 1/14. (The winter of 1950 would have its first reading in the 70s on 1/25.)
1954 (Monday)
Two days after the low was 11°, this afternoon's high soared to 69° under clear skies (32 degrees above average, but four degrees from the record set in 1949).
1967 (Wednesday)
Two days after the coldest reading of the winter, 4° above zero, today's high reached 60°, melting the last of the snow on the ground from the 12.5 "snowstorm of Feb. 6-7.
1980 (Friday)
Today was the 24th day in a row with no measurable precipitation. Total precipitation for Jan./Feb. was just 2.76", half of what typically falls in these months. These twenty-four days were also cold, as temperatures averaged three degrees below normal.
1982 (Monday)
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 also 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°).
1984 (Wednesday)
1.73" of rain fell today, with 0.75" pouring down in the 60-minute period between 6:45-7:45 AM. Temperatures were mild, with a high of 58°.
1986 (Saturday)
The 0.1" of snow that fell today just after midnight was the only measurable snow to fall on this date between 1971-2013 (1.6" would fall in 2014).
1987 (Sunday)
Today was the coldest day of the winter, with a high/low of 22°/4°, twenty degrees colder than average.
2015 (Sunday)
Arctic cold returned, made even more frigid by winds gusting between 30-45 mph. Temperatures were in the teens throughout the day, then dropped like a rock into the single digits after 8 PM, and down to 4° by midnight. Wind chills were between -5° and -15°. Meanwhile, the latest winter storm was yet another non-event (just 0.9" fell yesterday), making it the seventh under-performer of the past two months. However, it dumped another fifteen inches of snow on beleaguered Boston, bringing its total snowfall this season to 96 inches (75 inches more than NYC's total).
2020 (Saturday)
This morning's low of 14° was the coldest reading this winter, passing the low of 16° back on Dec. 19. However, the day with the winter's coldest daily mean temperature continued to be 12/19, as today's was two degrees warmer (high/low of 25°/16° vs. 31°/14°). Only the winters of 1932, 1975 and 2002 have had a milder reading for their coldest temperature (four other winters have had 14° as their coldest reading).
The -8 in 1943 was the last time that Central Park was colder than -2.
Posted by: Harry | 02/15/2020 at 10:11 PM