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Lowest winter temperatures


famartin

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Anyone know (I'm too lazy to look) what the lowest lows were last winter for PHL and ABE?

Lows last winter (LEFT) and so far this winter (RIGHT), updated thru 1PM January 24th:

TTN 13 3

DYL 11 -3

PNE 12 3

NXX 12 2

WRI 10 5

VAY 12 5

SMQ 8 -9

LOM 11 0

NEL -2 0

UKT 8 -4

PHL 13 8

MJX -2 0

BLM 10 3

PTW 13 1

XLL 15 -1

MMU 10 -8

ABE 8 -4

EWR 14 5

CDW 11 0

12N 5 -11

TEB 13 5

NYC 13 6

ACY 10 5

ILG 11 8

LGA 14 9

MQS 12 5

JFK 14 6

RDG 10 0

MIV 4 3

MPO 1 -8

FWN 3 -15

LNS 7 2

HPN 8 -1

FRG 13 4

DOV 11 10

AVP 2 -8

WWD 15 9

MGJ 0 -10

APG 12 10

SWF 0 -4

MUI 10 -4

GED 10 8

ESN 14 12

W29 17 16

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eight of the last 20 winters in Central Park failed to have a temperature in the single digits...the last zero reading was -2 in Jan. 1994...

Do you think we will ever get there again Unc?  How much of a UHI increase has there been since 1994?

I was thinking about this today-- was the 00 decade the first decade without negative temps at Central Park?

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Do you think we will ever get there again Unc? How much of a UHI increase has there been since 1994?

I was thinking about this today-- was the 00 decade the first decade without negative temps at Central Park?

January 2004 was cold...two days of one degree...NYC did not see a temperature below zero from 1944-1962...19 years...

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  • 1 month later...

Lows last winter (LEFT) and so far this winter (RIGHT), updated thru January 9th:

TTN 13 15

DYL 11 13

PNE 12 16

NXX 12 17

WRI 10 10

VAY 12 11

SMQ 8 3

LOM 11 12

NEL -2 1

UKT 8 6

PHL 13 19

MJX -2 0

BLM 10 14

PTW 13 15

MMU 10 3

ABE 8 9

EWR 14 17

CDW 11 9

12N 5 3

TEB 13 10

NYC 13 19

ACY 10 12

ILG 11 15

LGA 14 20

MQS 12 15

JFK 14 19

RDG 10 15

MIV 4 6

MPO 1 4

FWN 3 0

LNS 7 15

HPN 8 14

FRG 13 14

DOV 11 18

AVP 2 9

WWD 15 17

MGJ 0 0

APG 12 17

SWF 0 8

MUI 10 14

ISP 12 13

GED 10 14

ESN 14 19

W29 17 21

Updated... so *bump*

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After another 7-10 days, there should be a lot more blue.

due to an expanding area of white ;)

snow pack will help bust a few model runs (temps)

BTW....I have to tell you my area, Allaire NJ, simply was hit by a snow bomb. Here we are weeks later, and I have a solid snow pack, like concrete now, of 9-14 inches remaining (much higher in drifts and piles). I tried to clear the driveway opening a bit more yesterday and decided I needed either a jack hammer or railroad spikes. The driveway is not going to get any wider before tonight's event.

Might go buy this later today....if my trailer will fit it....

post-520-0-61521100-1294749252.jpg

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due to an expanding area of white ;)

snow pack will help bust a few model runs (temps)

BTW....I have to tell you my area, Allaire NJ, simply was hit by a snow bomb. Here we are weeks later, and I have a solid snow pack, like concrete now, of 9-14 inches remaining (much higher in drifts and piles). I tried to clear the driveway opening a bit more yesterday and decided I needed either a jack hammer or railroad spikes. The driveway is not going to get any wider before tonight's event.

That's a very impressive snow pack. In parts of the East, the persistent snow cover has been something that was often mentioned in accounts of early winters, but had become quite uncommon in recent years.

Might go buy this later today....if my trailer will fit it....

post-520-0-61521100-1294749252.jpg

You might just need it.

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I've been assembling some data on winter minimum temperatures, inspired by reading a number of posters who seem convinced we have been experiencing "arctic outbreaks". The data is for Central Park 1876 - 2010 and is annual (by year) rather than by season. The graph clearly shows that at one time below zero in the winter was a common occurence in central park.

It also shows that in NYC, to have a winter where the lowest temperature does not fall below 10 is relatively rare ( 23 out of 135 years). 8 of the 23 have occured since 1990.

It is very rare for the winter minimum not to fall below 15 ...this has only happened 5 times in 135 years and three of those times have been since 2000. By contrast, 41 out of 135 years have had an annual minimum of 0 or below (30.4%, almost 1 in 3) but none of them have occured in the past 15 years.

The low so far this winter in Central Park as of January 12 is 19. The coldest last year was 13. The average winter minimum for the 135 year period is 4.1 degrees F. The average since 1960 (factoring out the very cold winters of the 19th and early 20th centuries) is 5.9. NYC hasn't been that cold since 2005. The 10 year average for 2001 - 2010 was 10.0 degrees

Obviously, there is a lot of room for discussion of the relationship of these stats to climate change, but the recent lack of cold temperatures may yet turn around as have the lean snow years of the 70s and 80s.

Note: the year labels are approximate and do not align correctly with the data points on the graph. The data points themselves are accurate. It isn't hard to figure out what year you are looking at if you know, for example, that the -15 occured in 1934.

post-290-0-13572000-1294984742.gif

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I should add that winter minimum temperatures are a very significant environmental factor, affecting many things such as the mix of plant (hardiness zone) and animal life that can survive in an area...or thrive in an area, the prevalence of various pests that have greater winter survival rates, etc.

Even if winters average normal (or even colder than normal), the failure to achieve "normal" winter minumums can have a significant impact.

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I should add that winter minimum temperatures are a very significant environmental factor, affecting many things such as the mix of plant (hardiness zone) and animal life that can survive in an area...or thrive in an area, the prevalence of various pests that have greater winter survival rates, etc.

Even if winters average normal (or even colder than normal), the failure to achieve "normal" winter minumums can have a significant impact.

As an amateaur horticulturalist, I totally see what you're saying... though I'm not gonna totally mind it if temps fail to reach the single digits since that'll give my little redwood another year to get used to New Jersey ;)

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Lows last winter (LEFT) and so far this winter (RIGHT), updated thru 7AM January 14th:

TTN 13 12

DYL 11 8

PNE 12 9

NXX 12 14

WRI 10 10

VAY 12 5

SMQ 8 0

LOM 11 10

NEL -2 1

UKT 8 1

PHL 13 12

MJX -2 0

BLM 10 10

PTW 13 12

MMU 10 3

ABE 8 5

EWR 14 14

CDW 11 7

12N 5 2

TEB 13 7

NYC 13 18

ACY 10 12

ILG 11 14

LGA 14 20

MQS 12 15

JFK 14 15

RDG 10 12

MIV 4 3

MPO 1 4

FWN 3 0

LNS 7 13

HPN 8 5

FRG 13 12

DOV 11 17

AVP 2 8

WWD 15 16

MGJ 0 -2

APG 12 17

SWF 0 -2

MUI 10 14

GED 10 14

ESN 14 19

W29 17 21

Thru 7AM EST, TTN, DYL, PNE, NXX, VAY, SMQ, LOM, UKT, PHL, BLM, PTW, ABE, EWR, CDW, 12N, TEB, NYC, ILG, JFK, RDG, MIV, LNS, HPN, FRG, AVP, WWD, MGJ and SWF all have had their coldest night of the winter this past night. TTN, DYL, PNE, LOM, UKT, PHL, BLM, PTW, ABE, EWR, MIV, HPN, FRG and SWF have now also gotten as cold or colder than they did last winter.

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BTW, the *average* minimum winter temperature at TTN is 3... just to show how far we still have to go in many areas just to get to *average*...

Hasn't TTN become more urbanized over the years, though? Doesn't this play a factor?

Central Park used to make single digits every winter, and yet struggles to get below 15F most nights nowadays. I would suspect global warming in some ways, but the problem is they don't get cold even when 850s are brutal. For example, we were at -19C 850s in mid-December, and Central Park recorded a low of 19F, I believe. Even during the January 2009 arctic outbreak when 850mb temperatures were near -25C, with snow on the ground, Central Park recorded a low of 6F.

What 850mb temperature would get Central Park to 0F? Do you need the Hudson River to be partially frozen with a light north wind these days? It seems any NW trajectory downslopes them and keeps nighttime temperatures up..

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My AM low this morning was at 12:16am of 13.4....interestingly my low for yesterday and the coldest so far this year was at 11:19pm last night of 12.7. The coldest temp recorded last winter was on Jan 31st last year -with no snow cover. Of course the new month was dawning and February 2010 resulted in the 2nd greatest monthly snow month in the NW Philly burbs of Chester County's history with 62.8" of snow and 3 storms greater than 1 Ft.

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As an amateaur horticulturalist, I totally see what you're saying... though I'm not gonna totally mind it if temps fail to reach the single digits since that'll give my little redwood another year to get used to New Jersey ;)

I hear you. I got away with a Rosemary bush surviving outside for a couple of winters (2001 and 2002) and was surprised to see that they could be more than just a small annual plant. Now I have one in a very large planter pot that comes indoor every winter. Fresh rosemary for cooking year round :thumbsup:

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Hasn't TTN become more urbanized over the years, though? Doesn't this play a factor?

Central Park used to make single digits every winter, and yet struggles to get below 15F most nights nowadays. I would suspect global warming in some ways, but the problem is they don't get cold even when 850s are brutal. For example, we were at -19C 850s in mid-December, and Central Park recorded a low of 19F, I believe. Even during the January 2009 arctic outbreak when 850mb temperatures were near -25C, with snow on the ground, Central Park recorded a low of 6F.

What 850mb temperature would get Central Park to 0F? Do you need the Hudson River to be partially frozen with a light north wind these days? It seems any NW trajectory downslopes them and keeps nighttime temperatures up..

There's more to it than 850 temps, but -19c isn't brutal, -30 is. It will get cold in Central Park again and you will be amazed that such a thing could still happen. But it can and it will.

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FYI, the low here this morning was only 18. I'm not sure why, but I suspect the wind stayed up off of the Sound (a little over a mile away) and we had cloudy skies.

The Sound temperatures are down into the mid 30's, so the water has been actively giving up lots of heat to the air. Our snow cover this morning is 17", so the high mins were not for lack of that.

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Theres more to it than 850 temps, but -19c isn't brutal, -30 is. It will get cold in Central Park again and you will be amazed that such a thing could still happen. But it can and it will.

Obviously -19C isn't record-breaking cold, but you'd expect to get to the single digits/low teens with those 850s. Granted, it did occur in December with no snow cover, but still....

I'm not doubting the potential for Central Park to get cold again....the set-up for cold at KNYC is a straight north wind, heavy snow cover, and a partially frozen Hudson River wouldn't hurt either. Winds stayed W/NW last night, which is a downsloping direction for the City.

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Obviously -19C isn't record-breaking cold, but you'd expect to get to the single digits/low teens with those 850s. Granted, it did occur in December with no snow cover, but still....

I'm not doubting the potential for Central Park to get cold again....the set-up for cold at KNYC is a straight north wind, heavy snow cover, and a partially frozen Hudson River wouldn't hurt either. Winds stayed W/NW last night, which is a downsloping direction for the City.

You make a good point about downsloping, but also, I don't believe that 850 temps are the only determinant for how cold it gets at the surface. Based on some past very cold outbreaks in NYC, I don't see that heavy snowcover has been a requirement either...many have only had light snow cover...often only an inch or two of fluff from snowshowers with an arctic front that brought the cold air.

Perhaps one of the mets could chime in with things to look at for identifying very cold surface outbreaks.

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