May 2011 NYC metro area obs./discussion

[snywx]

2.21" of rain since Sunday..

[Snowlover11]

Pouring now, woke me up.

[NorEaster27]

I'm still wondering why people keep saying this spring has been awful. The last calander month has been more than 2 degrees above normal everywhere and more than 4 degrees above normal in Central NJ. People keep comparing it to last May as well, which comparatively wasn't all that anomalous either with the HPRCC maps indicative of monthly temperature departures around +4 in the city. The warmth was more widepsread to the north last year---as Southern New England has really suffered a major difference from last year...but the difference here has not been remarkable. The precipitation departures have been nearly opposite, on the other hand...but the temperature argument is getting old.

Its been a much warmer spring just inland compared to the coast

[CAT5ANDREW]

The coastal flooding last night was impressive.THere were numerous streets flooded in Howard Beach in Queens with 2-3 feet of water.Tonight is expected to be worse.

[TheTrials]

Its been a much warmer spring just inland compared to the coast

This.

[CAT5ANDREW]

Its been a much warmer spring just inland compared to the coast

It has still been above normal though at the coast but compared to last year it feels cooler than it really is.This has been as normal a spring as it gets here.Last Spring/Summer we had virtually no sea breeze

[rgwp96]

I'm still wondering why people keep saying this spring has been awful. The last calander month has been more than 2 degrees above normal everywhere and more than 4 degrees above normal in Central NJ. People keep comparing it to last May as well, which comparatively wasn't all that anomalous either with the HPRCC maps indicative of monthly temperature departures around +4 in the city. The warmth was more widepsread to the north last year---as Southern New England has really suffered a major difference from last year...but the difference here has not been remarkable. The precipitation departures have been nearly opposite, on the other hand...but the temperature argument is getting old.

it was awful because of all the rain. also im sure with all the cloudy days it effected night time low temps. anyway to compare night time avgs  vs day time avgs with those maps.  my area had 9.72 inches of rain in april. It was a terrible spring month. 

[TheTrials]

it was awful because of all the rain. also im sure with all the cloudy days it effected night time low temps. anyway to compare night time avgs vs day time avgs with those maps. my area had 9 inches of rain in april. It was a terrible spring month.

I would like to see that.

[NorEaster27]

It has still been above normal though at the coast but compared to last year it feels cooler than it really is.This has been as normal a spring as it gets here.Last Spring/Summer we had virtually no sea breeze

The highs are very deceiving when they occur for a few minutes before crashing with the sea-breeze.

[NorEaster27]

The coastal flooding last night was impressive.THere were numerous streets flooded in Howard Beach in Queens with 2-3 feet of water.Tonight is expected to be worse.

Where? By the train station in old howard?

[TheTrials]

The highs are very deceiving when they occur for a few minutes before crashing with the sea-breeze.

Sounds funny but you raise a good point. Last spring, the warm days were full days of warmth, the clouds burned off early and it stayed warm. Not so this year.

[CAT5ANDREW]

Where?  By the train station in old howard?

by 160th Ave where you turn to go to hamilton beach and surrounding streets and 99th street from 160th ave down to Charles park.I was shocked at how much water there was and it is going to be even higher tonight.

[IsentropicLift]

6z NAM gave everyone another 1-2" through the next 48 hours. That should bring just about everyone close to the 3-4" mark and make this event a non-bust. The fact that it was spread out over a few days has allowed for only small rises on the areas rivers thus far. As long as we don't get a hit with a quick 2-3" of rain over here in Jersey we should end up alot better than expected.

[CAT5ANDREW]

Sounds funny but you raise a good point.  Last spring, the warm days were full days of warmth, the clouds burned off early and it stayed warm.  Not so this year.

I was at the beach last summer and did not experience a single sea breeze.There was always an offshore breeze.

[rgwp96]

event total of 3.06 so far

[bates]

I'm still wondering why people keep saying this spring has been awful. The last calander month has been more than 2 degrees above normal everywhere and more than 4 degrees above normal in Central NJ. People keep comparing it to last May as well, which comparatively wasn't all that anomalous either with the HPRCC maps indicative of monthly temperature departures around +4 in the city. The warmth was more widepsread to the north last year---as Southern New England has really suffered a major difference from last year...but the difference here has not been remarkable. The precipitation departures have been nearly opposite, on the other hand...but the temperature argument is getting old.

Because it was awful. Your post shows the folly of going by stats alone. Cloud cover, excessive and frequent rains, and high morning lows skewed the numbers. In reality, it was a generally cool, raw, and wet spring. Forget the stats -- talk to people and they will tell you how bad this spring has been. Went into the local pool shop the other day and they say this is the worst April and May in 25 years for them as no one is thinking pools and swimming.

[Cfa]

Well the sun just blazed right on out.

[Momza]

Well the sun just blazed right on out.

Any chance of 2 hours of partial sun as per the current radar?

[ag3]

Sun is poking through the cloud cover here.

[Weathergun]

The highs are very deceiving when they occur for a few minutes before crashing with the sea-breeze.

The highs are also very deceiving when you spending much of the day, under clouds, fog and/or rain. Of course, things have been better than that for I-78 south crowd.

[IsentropicLift]

The 6z WRF simulated radar has pretty steady precip over the region through at least Thursday night. We shall see what happens, the upstream radar doesn't look too impressive at the moment.

http://www.meteo.psu.edu/~gadomski/WRFRAD_6z/jloop.html

[TheTrials]

Because it was awful. Your post shows the folly of going by stats alone. Cloud cover, excessive and frequent rains, and high morning lows skewed the numbers. In reality, it was a generally cool, raw, and wet spring. Forget the stats -- talk to people and they will tell you how bad this spring has been. Went into the local pool shop the other day and they say this is the worst April and May in 25 years for them as no one is thinking pools and swimming.

Well said. We had a real nice stretch two weeks ago, otherwise it has been wet with brief periods of some warmth but nothing sustained. Last spring was hands down far superior.

[TheTrials]

The highs are also very deceiving when you spending much of the day, under clouds, fog and/or rain. Of course, things have been better than that for I-78 south crowd.

The area is very much split in two right now. From just north and east of earthlight it has been clouds, raw, and not nice.

His area to the s and west has seen much better weather.

[Shades]

Because it was awful. Your post shows the folly of going by stats alone. Cloud cover, excessive and frequent rains, and high morning lows skewed the numbers. In reality, it was a generally cool, raw, and wet spring. Forget the stats -- talk to people and they will tell you how bad this spring has been. Went into the local pool shop the other day and they say this is the worst April and May in 25 years for them as no one is thinking pools and swimming.

Good points. Sensible weather as observed by the average person can be drastically different/at odds with official observations. But as Earthlight states, it's the only objective way to look at things. From a business standpoint (especially those depending on consistent pre-summer warmth to boost their sales) it was not a pleasant Spring (except for a solid week or two). I also think most people are still in a lapse of short term memory and comparing this Spring with last Spring and making the difference/generalization from there rather than what is climatological. The numbers and statistics though, can't lie. It has been a warmer than normal Spring. Although, sensibly, it's been difficult to feel it and that has been especially represented by temperatures bias warm more so overnight than during the day. Like TheTrials has requested, I too would like to see some chart/comparison of this Spring's highs/lows and see the skew numerically or graphically, if that can be done, it would be really useful in representation of this year's Spring.

[A-L-E-X]

Because it was awful. Your post shows the folly of going by stats alone. Cloud cover, excessive and frequent rains, and high morning lows skewed the numbers. In reality, it was a generally cool, raw, and wet spring. Forget the stats -- talk to people and they will tell you how bad this spring has been. Went into the local pool shop the other day and they say this is the worst April and May in 25 years for them as no one is thinking pools and swimming.

I leave out the morning lows when considering how hot a summer has been because UHI taints that data plus morning lows are not indicative of most people's idea of how the day was. Strictly go by the high temp.

[IsentropicLift]

Over here in Jersey, the weather has been quite nice. Sure we've had quite a bit of rain, but we've had quite a bit of sunny nice stretches as well. I'm usually far enough west to avoid the marine layer. I know a few weeks ago I had a couple of bright sunny days in the upper 70's to low 80's and people on here were complaining about being stuck in the 50's and fog. I guess thats the price you pay for living so close to the ocean.

[TheTrials]

Good points. Sensible weather as observed by the average person can be drastically different/at odds with official observations. But as Earthlight states, it's the only objective way to look at things. From a business standpoint (especially those depending on consistent pre-summer warmth to boost their sales) it was not a pleasant Spring (except for a solid week or two). I also think most people are still in a lapse of short term memory and comparing this Spring with last Spring and making the difference/generalization from there rather than what is climatological. The numbers and statistics though, can't lie. It has been a warmer than normal Spring. Although, sensibly, it's been difficult to feel it and that has been especially represented by temperatures bias warm more so overnight than during the day. Like TheTrials has requested, I too would like to see some chart/comparison of this Spring's highs/lows and see the skew numerically or graphically, if that can be done, it would be really useful in representation of this year's Spring.

When your overnight low is 60 degrees and your high is 65-70 things get very skewed this time of year. Dense fog and cloud cover has kept much of the area very insulated at night only to burn off for two hours and then back into fog and clouds.

[BxEngine]

I have never seen fog lift out of here as fast as it just did...within 5 minutes it seemed like we went from horrible visibility to hints of sun within the gray clouds.

[IsentropicLift]

There is a new cluster of thunderstorms developing just southeast of Sandy Hook which look to impact NYC proper in about an hour or so.

[TheTrials]

I leave out the morning lows when considering how hot a summer has been because UHI taints that data plus morning lows are not indicative of most people's idea of how the day was. Strictly go by the high temp.

LOL, too bad earthlights map doesnt do that, its both temps. Also, its not just the City that has had high low temps. Per my previous post, the whole area has had warm nights not because of UHI but because of the low clouds fog etc.