A snowless Christmas and a rainy New Year’s — something more typical of Miami that instead has become a reality in New York City this winter season.
The Big Apple is just days away from breaking a record that might seem unimaginable: the latest date to see measurable snowfall in recorded history. While the city has seen precipitation since the winter season officially began, it has primarily come in the form of rain instead of snow due to abnormally warm temperatures. At the official weather station in New York City’s Central Park, no measurable snow has been recorded this winter, only flurries.
On Nov. 7, the weather was far from typical in the city as temperatures soared to 77 degrees Fahrenheit, a remarkable 20 degrees above average for the date. Temperatures remained higher than usual far beyond that date, with New York City failing to dip below 40 until Nov. 14, which is several weeks out from the average of Oct. 22.
Plenty of rain fell on the city throughout the month of November. Still, not even a trace of snow was recorded as the calendar flipped from Thanksgiving celebrations to the winter holidays in December.
“It’s not from a lack of storms,” said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist David Dombek. “It’s not like we’ve been in just a dry weather pattern and we can’t get a raindrop or anything to fall out of the sky. It’s actually been a pretty moist and pretty active weather pattern, we just haven’t had the cold air.”
Overall precipitation for the month of December was more than 2 inches above average, but the vast majority of that fell as rain instead of snow. Temperatures on New Year’s Eve maxed out nearly 15 degrees above average, and instead of Times Square spectators bundling up as usual.
