Where can I find historic daily average temperatures?

[SamRoss]

I am a middle school teacher who is very concerned about global warming. My students’ memories don’t go back very far and they think it is perfectly normal to see mild weather and little to no snow throughout the winter months in New York City. I would like to compare current temperatures each day with historic averages. Finding current temperatures is obviously not a problem, but I am having difficulty finding historical data. Specifically, I would like the historic average daily temperature for each calendar day with the data taken from 1880 to 1990 (or thereabout). For obvious reasons, I do not want temperatures from more recent years to be included in the calculation of the historic average. Does anyone know how I could find this information? Even raw data in an Excel spreadsheet would do (I could type in a small amount of code to calculate the averages) and in fact would be preferable in many ways. Thanks!

 

[jim mcnamara]

NOAA weather.gov site has various archives you can sort through.

https://www.weather.gov/okx/CentralParkHistorical

 

[jrmichler]

The information you might be available from either the National Climatic Data Center, www.ncei.noaa.gov, or from the National Center for Environmental Information, www.ncdc.noaa.gov. Unfortunately, both sites are currently shut down because of the government shutdown.

 

[CWatters]

NOAA weather.gov site has various archives you can sort through.

https://www.weather.gov/okx/CentralParkHistorical

Beat me to it but try scrolling down to "Climatological Data", "Temperature" button then "Average Monthly & Annual".

Leads to a pdf with monthly data from 1869.

 

[SamRoss]

The information you might be available from either the National Climatic Data Center, www.ncei.noaa.gov, or from the National Center for Environmental Information, www.ncdc.noaa.gov. Unfortunately, both sites are currently shut down because of the government shutdown.

Yeah, I tried there earlier :( I guess I'll try them again when (if?) the shutdown ends. By any chance, have you used those sites before and do you happen to know if an Excel spreadsheet showing temperatures for each day can be downloaded?

 

[jrmichler]

They were recommended to me when I was asking questions about getting rainfall records to fill in a two week period where I screwed up reading a data logger. I was able to get the data by another method, but kept the note.

 

[SamRoss]

NOAA weather.gov site has various archives you can sort through.

https://www.weather.gov/okx/CentralParkHistorical

Thanks for the tip! The information on this page under the “Monthly Almanacs” section is very close to what I’m looking for. I can see that it lists the historical average daily temperature for each calendar day which is very good. I could reasonably use this information the way it is. My only quibble is that the averages are calculated using data going all the way to the present day. If you go to https://climate.nasa.gov/ and click on “GLOBAL TEMPERATURE”, you can see that the Earth has been heating up precipitously for decades already. In comparing current temperatures with historic ones, I am hesitant to allow higher than average temperatures from more recent years to corrupt the average historic temperature calculation which is supposed to be representative of the past.

In light of the above, if anyone knows how I might get a copy of one of these National Weather Service Monthly Almanacs from a few decades ago or an Excel spreadsheet with raw data that I can analyze, it would be much appreciated, even if the averages turn out to be only slightly different from the current monthly almanacs.

I apologize if I am imposing too many constraints and I want to thank jim mcnamara and everyone again for their help and input.

 

[SamRoss]

Beat me to it but try scrolling down to "Climatological Data", "Temperature" button then "Average Monthly & Annual".

Leads to a pdf with monthly data from 1869.

Thank you. I was able to convert the PDF into an Excel spreadsheet and noticed that average monthly temperatures from 1869-1980 were on average (over the months of January to December) 2.1 degrees Fahrenheit colder than from 1981-present. Of course, the average monthly temperatures from 1869-1980 were only 0.5 a degree cooler than the average temperatures taken from 1869-present so it wouldn't have been too bad to use the 1869-present averages but I'm still happy to have the 1869-1980 averages instead. Thanks for your help.

 

[Evo]

Thank you. I was able to convert the PDF into an Excel spreadsheet and noticed that average monthly temperatures from 1869-1980 were on average (over the months of January to December) 2.1 degrees Fahrenheit colder than from 1981-present. Of course, the average monthly temperatures from 1869-1980 were only 0.5 a degree cooler than the average temperatures taken from 1869-present so it wouldn't have been too bad to use the 1869-present averages but I'm still happy to have the 1869-1980 averages instead. Thanks for your help.

Don't forget that if you are looking at city temperatures that the amount of cement, reflection from windows, etc... becomes an issue. There's a term called "urban heat islands" that make temperatures look higher than they actually are. This would become more of a factor as NY City grew. It will skew newer temperatures to look warmer than older temperatures when it was less of an issue.

An urban heat island (UHI) is an urban area or metropolitan area that is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas due to human activities. The temperature difference usually is larger at night than during the day, and is most apparent when winds are weak. UHI is most noticeable during the summer and winter. The main cause of the urban heat island effect is from the modification of land surfaces.[1][2] Waste heat generated by energy usage is a secondary contributor.[3] As a population center grows, it tends to expand its area and increase its average temperature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_heat_island

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/urban-heat-island/

https://climatekids.nasa.gov/heat-islands/

Perhaps choosing a rural area that would be less of an issue would be a better idea, or even an area that doesn't have the packed skyscrapers and mass transit of NY City, perhaps Albany, it should have temperature data going back that far.

 

[SamRoss]

Don't forget that if you are looking at city temperatures that the amount of cement, reflection from windows, etc... becomes an issue. There's a term called "urban heat islands" that make temperatures look higher than they actually are. This would become more of a factor as NY City grew. It will skew newer temperatures to look warmer than older temperatures when it was less of an issue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_heat_island

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/urban-heat-island/

https://climatekids.nasa.gov/heat-islands/

Perhaps choosing a rural area that would be less of an issue would be a better idea, or even an area that doesn't have the packed skyscrapers and mass transit of NY City, perhaps Albany, it should have temperature data going back that far.

Fair point, although I still think I'd like to discuss data from exactly the place my students live so they can relate global warming to what they see outside their own windows. Of course, there's no reason why we can't look at data from other places as well :) Thanks very much for your input.

 

[Evo]

Fair point, although I still think I'd like to discuss data from exactly the place my students live so they can relate global warming to what they see outside their own windows. Of course, there's no reason why we can't look at data from other places as well :) Thanks very much for your input.

Just wanted to make sure you were aware of the "heat Island" problem with the temperatures within the city "now" appearing warmer than they actually are since you seem to be looking for an accurate comparison. Sounds like you are a fun teacher.

 

[Genava]

I am a middle school teacher who is very concerned about global warming. My students’ memories don’t go back very far and they think it is perfectly normal to see mild weather and little to no snow throughout the winter months in New York City. I would like to compare current temperatures each day with historic averages. Finding current temperatures is obviously not a problem, but I am having difficulty finding historical data. Specifically, I would like the historic average daily temperature for each calendar day with the data taken from 1880 to 1990 (or thereabout). For obvious reasons, I do not want temperatures from more recent years to be included in the calculation of the historic average. Does anyone know how I could find this information? Even raw data in an Excel spreadsheet would do (I could type in a small amount of code to calculate the averages) and in fact would be preferable in many ways. Thanks!

Super cool initiative.

You can find some useful resources there on the American Chemical Society webpage:
https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/climatescience/references.html

There are links to the NOAA National Climatic Data Center, Climatic Research Unit, Met Office Hadley Centre, Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature, The National Snow and Ice Data Center and IRI/LDEO Climate Data Library.

The blog skepticalscience is listed on the references of the ACS and on this you can find this DIY guide:
https://skepticalscience.com/diy_instrumental_temperature_record.html

Good luck with this

 

[johnbbahm]

I think NOAA's climate at a glance has what you may be looking for.
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/city/...ase=10&firsttrendyear=1895&lasttrendyear=2018
It also can do maximum and minimum temperatures