The City That Lost Its Winter
Central Park's thermometer has climbed +4.5°F above its 1871–1900 baseline. The warmest year on record is 2023; the coldest, 1888 — and the gap between them is the story.
Walk through Central Park on a January morning and count the hard freezes. There are fewer than there used to be. The record says so.
Freezing days — those when the low drops to 32°F or below — have fallen from 96 a year (the 1800s average) to 65 in recent years. That's 31 winter nights, gone.
The heat moved the other way. Days hitting 90°F or higher rose from 11 a year (1870–1899) to 16 recently. Five more scorchers per summer, on a record running since 1869.
The all-time extremes still belong to the past: 106°F on July 9, 1936, and −15°F on February 9, 1934. The middle is what shifted — the everyday baseline, up +4.5°F.
Rain followed the warmth. New York is +7.4 inches wetter per year now than in the 1800s. The wettest year on record was 1983; the driest, 1965.
The two ends of the ledger point the same direction. 2023 was the warmest year in 157 years of measurement; 1888 the coldest — and 1888 was a long time ago.
The verdict isn't in any single record day. It's in the 31 freezes the city no longer gets, every year, while nobody is watching.