LibertyBell

Are you seriously trying to say that an average temperature of 48 in 10 years feels the same as an average temperature of 32 right now? Regardless of the incredible amount of disdain I have about *average temperatures*-- there is no more meaningless stat in all of meteorology.

but people don't judge *days* by average temperature, they judge them by the temperature and heat index on that day.

Yep, there is such a thing as *degrees of cold* literally, not all cold is the same, just like not all snowstorms are the same. This cold is like an 8 inch snowstorm, an emotionally satisfying significant amount of cold, but a KU kind of cold-- No!

The 30 year average is very subjective, there is no climate cycle that corresponds to it, there is no scientific reason for having a 30 year average it's really just a matter of convenience rather than anything scientific. For my purposes, I would much rather use an average that begins in 1950 which is when most of our airports came into operation, or 1960 at the latest. That way all stations are on an even footing since they were all in operation by 1960 at the latest. No 30 year averages or 10 year averages or what have you, just use all the data we have available starting in 1950 or 1960. it's time to dump the 30 year averages.

lol I love this, when did this happen Ed?

plus no wind and blue skies

I don't think the 10 days at 89 thing would ever happen, hell we don't even get 10 days of 90+ degrees anymore =\ The last time we even had a 7 day heatwave was back in 2002. Our heatwaves have become shorter. https://www.weather.gov/okx/heatwaves These were some astounding heatwaves of the past August 1896 (10 days) over 1500 died in NYC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1896_Eastern_North_America_heat_wave https://www.npr.org/2010/08/11/129127924/the-heat-wave-of-1896-and-the-rise-of-roosevelt?ft=1&f=1022 August 1953 - September 1953 (12 days with multiple days of 100+) https://www.life.com/history/heat-wave-photos-1950s/

I hope the westerlies last all spring and summer!!

don't forget no wind either :-) doing spring cleaning today!

No it's the definition of a hot day (hot day = 90 degree high). I'll take 90 degrees and dry and even 100 degrees and dry too, but it's about actual heat, not what feels more uncomfortable to us. Humid will always feel more uncomfortable.

That's super inconvenient to have separate threads for 3+ events. I suggested that earlier we should just have one modeling thread and one observation thread. Keep it simple.

I think the reason to keep it all in one place is because it's a discussion about weather (Forky stated this earlier too.)

I think we have to designate cold and hot by something more than raw averages. I suggest using a combo of statistics including dividing the 30 year period into thirds and designating top third, middle third and bottom third. I also suggested using number of cold days (days with highs of 32 or below) just like we use hot days (days with highs of 90 or above) to rank our hottest summers. There's a huge difference between this winter and the winters I mentioned previously from this same 30 year period, so you can't just all group them together as *cold*. Just for clarity, here are the winters I'm talking about: 2000-01 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2013-14 2014-15 I'd add 2017-18 to this list too because of its big cold wave in January although I understand it might not rank as cold because of February (though March-early April more than made up for that.)

But this has nothing to do with climate change. We've had much colder winters in the 00s and the 10s. I don't think the climate has changed that much in the past 10 years. Sure it's changed since the 70s and 80s and maybe it's much harder to get below zero now than it used to be, but we can still have much colder winters than this even without going below zero.

Yeah I don't see a reason for anyone's feelings to get hurt about average cold or middle third cold. It doesn't mean it wasn't a cold winter, just not extremely so. Big difference between very cold and somewhat cold.

True, it's gotten closer, peak MJ was better though.

Sounds like one of those storms that backed in from the East.

and February 2015 which truly amazes me for having a single digit low on the last day of the month (almost the first day of March!) 2 fucking degrees was the record from February 2015 just a few days ago! How many single digit lows in February 2015 alone? AND WITH A LOT OF SNOW (MARCH HAD A LOT OF SNOW TOO).

Lebron or MJ? I mean, we all know it's MJ all day long..... MJ never choked in the finals.

They might be too humid or very warm and humid but if they don't have a set number of 90 degree days (24 in the case of NYC) it can't be considered a hot summer.

Alonzo isn't the polar bear, YOU are.

I would if we have a small number of 90 degree days. Based on those sites I quote from, you need 24 90 degree days to consider NYC to have had a hot summer.

I don't see a reason to argue, the statement is some people have seen winters that were much colder and consistently so. And it wasn't that long ago either. The entire 2002-03 to 2004-05 period was much colder than this. As were 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11, 2013-14, 2014-15. This winter is only cold compared to this decade not compared to previous decades.

100 degrees isn't a necessity if the heat wave is at least 7 days long, in that case longevity trumps extremes.

that puts it in the middle third of winters which is exactly where I would put it too. I used Don's since 2000-01 stat. 9th coldest out of 24 winters put it squarely in the middle third.