A Spring Day in Early January 2016 

​Another warm winters day in January around New York Harbor. It was not a record breaker this time in New York City. The record was 60 degrees at Central Park and the high temperature just got up to 59 degrees. Yet records were broken nearby. A record high temperature of 60 degrees was set in Islip, NY at 3:00pm today. This breaks the old record of 56 set in 2000.  In Atlantic City, a high temperature at the airport was 63 degrees, which ties the record of 63 degrees set back in 1930.
 
Around 3:00pm today in Atlantic Highlands, my thermometer read 60 degrees. With warm rains on the horizon, it felt like springtime in January. There were plenty of people walking around in t-shirts, some even with shorts. 
 
Yet, it wasn’t just the temperature. Earlier in the day, heavy rains drenched the region. It was the first major rainfall of 2016 and it was a record-breaker. 

​A record rainfall of 1.79 inches was set at Central Park in New York City today. This breaks the old record of 1.72 set in 1881. Basically it hasn't rained this much on this day in NYC since Chester A. Arthur was President of the United States. Pretty remarkable!
 
Other nearby sites also got soaked. In Islip, a record rainfall of 1.71 inches was set, which breaks the old record of 0.78 set in 1987, and a record rainfall was set in Newark, NJ with 1.77 inches. This breaks the old record of 0.89 set in 2000.
 
It’s a winter season surely for the record books with way above normal temperatures and sopping-up rainstorms.
 
But in the middle of all the mild and moist days there has been freezing temperatures. We get into the icebox then it’s followed by warm days, followed by harshly colder ones.  Winter just can’t make-up its mind.
 
But for now it looks like weather forecasters are calling for a fresh supply of cold air to arrive for the workweek with some chances of snow. Old Man Winter gets an “A” for effort.