In the northeastern United States, average warming temperatures for most climate data sites in December 2023 ranged from 3.6 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit above normal – making 2023 the warmest year on record for 13 of 35 major urban areas of the region, including New York.
A total of 28 cities in the region saw one of their five warmest years, according to a January 2 report from Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University.
“2023 continues a long 26-year stretch of above-normal temperatures,” said Art DeGaetano, a professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and director of the Northeast Regional Climate Center, which is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. .
The last year the annual average fell below the 20th century average was 1997, DeGaetano said.
“In fact, the 10 warmest years since 1895 have all occurred since 1998,” he said. “It has become increasingly clear that the trend we have seen reflects the long-term pattern of global climate change.”
Both Binghamton, New York, with an average temperature of 49.8 degrees, and Worcester, Massachusetts, with an average temperature of 51.6 degrees, saw their hottest year ever, according to climate center climatologist Samantha Borisoff.
Other Northeast cities see their warmest year on record: New York City, Central Park (2.1 degrees above average). Islip, New York (2.3 points); Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (2.4 points) Albany, New York (2.8 points); Newark, New Jersey (3.2 degrees); Baltimore (3.1 degrees); Dulles Airport, Chantilly, Virginia (2.9 points). Williamsport, Pennsylvania (2.7 points); Burlington, Vermont (2.4 points); Wilmington, Delaware (2.2 points) and Concord, New Hampshire (2.2 points).
The unusually warm year began in January, with temperatures ranging from 6 to 12 degrees above normal and setting about 10 average temperature records. Warmer temperatures also prevailed in February, April, July and most of autumn.
In Caribou, Maine, where the average July temperature is usually 66.7 degrees, the average July temperature in 2023 was 71.5 degrees, the hottest month on record.
The entire Northeast is experiencing a snowfall deficit, with the biggest shortages occurring in New England, New York and northwestern Pennsylvania, Borisov said.
Worcester and Hartford, Connecticut, recorded their snowiest December ever, with just a trace, Borisoff said. Worcester saw a 14.9-inch deviation from average snowfall amounts and Hartford had a 10.1-inch departure. Generally a noisy place in the winter, Syracuse, New York fell short of 25.8 inches of snow below normal in December.
Major northeastern cities continued a longer trend with little snow. Neither Baltimore nor Philadelphia have recorded more than an inch of snow in more than 700 days (since the end of January 2022) – the longest such streaks on record, Borisoff said. New York's Central Park and Dulles Airport in Chantilly, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., haven't seen more than an inch of snow since mid-February 2022 and mid-March 2022, respectively, which set records.
DeGaetano is a faculty associate at Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainabilityand serves on the New York State Climate Impact Assessment project steering committee.
