New York City, Other Northeastern Cities Set Weird Warm Winter Records

I'm pretty much joking, but if New England winters keep
getting warmer like the first half of this one did, will
we see scenes like this by Groundhog Day?

As the Northeast, including Vermont, braces for likely the sharpest, deepest cold snap in a few years, let's take a look at how weirdly warm it has been lately outside of Vermont, as well.  

Let's start with Central Park, New York City. They haven't had any measurable snow so far this winter. They've broken the record for the deepest into winter they've gotten without so much as 0.1 inches of snow. The old record was January 28, 1973.  

The Big Apple is also close to  also close to reaching the most consecutive days without measurable snow.   

 The previous record was 332 days, ending on December 15, 2020. The last time the New York had measurable snow was on March 9, 2022, when the city had a whopping 0.4 inches of snow. 

New York came close to having some snow last Wednesday at the onset of the most recent storm to affect the Northeast. Some flakes made it all the way down to Central Park, but melted as they landed. But snow did accumulate at higher elevations, as you'd expect. This being New York, the higher elevations were the tops of the taller skyscrapers, where a slushy dusting did accumulate.

If you didn't think the lack of snow was a measure of a weirdly warm winter in New York, check out this statistic:

Monday was the 34rd consecutive day in the city that was warmer than average. That breaks the old record for consecutive balmy days, which ended on January 9, 2017.

With a brief, but intense Arctic outbreak set to hit the Northeast on Friday and Saturday, New York City might hit a weird statistic. It could get down to 0 there during the looming cold snap, which is an increasingly rare event there. 

But they have a shot of reaching 0 without having had any snow this winter. 

Upstate in Albany, they're also breaking records for winter warmth. Or at least coming close to records.

As of Monday, Albany was on their 35th consecutive day of warmer than normal temperatures. Based on data that calculates normal from the average temperatures there since 1951, this is the third most consecutive days of above normal. Only two days in January failed to rise above freezing in Albany. 

The longest stretch of warmer than normal temperatures was 40 degrees, set between February 14 and March 25, 2010.

Up here in Vermont, we're not having such an extended streak, at least based on records from Burlington.

It certainly has been warmer than average since late December, but not every single day was toastier than average.  Two days - January 15 and 16, were every so slightly cooler than average.

As Boston's WBZ Chief Meteorologist Eric Fisher points out, Boston, Providence and Hartford will have gotten through the entire month of January with every day getting above freezing. That is the first time on record that has happened for all three cities.  (Despite the deep chill in northern New England/Vermont on Tuesday, it was above freezing in southern New England).

The average low temperature in Boston was above freezing in January. 

Along with the warmth has come some pretty extreme wetness, at least in eastern New England. Parts of Cape Cod have had nearly ten inches of rain this month. Portland, Maine has had nearly eight inches of rain or melted snow. (mostly rain, since it's been so warm).

The warm weather in New England and New York might have a few damaging consequences. Fruit and ornamental trees as far north as  Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and the New York City metro area are showing signs of budding and growth. 

The cold snap Friday and Saturday could end up damaging them. In a normal winter, these plants wouldn't be budding, and would survive a spell of Arctic cold just fine. With early buds appearing, I'm not so sure. 

In recent years, there have been problems with daffodil shoots coming up during these mild winters. When that happens and it gets cold again, these shoots just die back and try again in March when they should give it a go. 

But the winter has been so warm that there's actually buds for daffodil flowers. Those will probably die and not bloom ii the spring. 

Up here in Vermont, despite widespread daffodil shoots appearing during the first half of the month, I don't think the warmth this month will cause any real gardening or crop problems.