Second Heat Wave of Spring 2017 Around NY Harbor

A temperature reading near Sandy Hook Bay, NJ on Tuesday afternoon, June 13, 2017

​Summer is still a week away from officially starting, but we are getting a good taste of hot weather.  The second heat wave of spring has arrived to the New York metropolitan region.
 
The first heat wave of the year occurred during mid-May, when temperatures climbed to new record highs in many areas. On Thursday, May 18, Central Park reached 91 degrees F and broke the old record of 90 degrees set in 1936. Newark set a new record of 91 degrees F, and Islip, NY tied a record reaching 89 degrees F, which tied the record of 89 previously set in 1977. It was one of the earliest heat waves on record for the region.
 
Now the second heat wave of the year is here before the official start on summer on June 21, making this year the earliest New York City has ever seen two heat waves in spring since record keeping began in 1868. Another record-challenging heat wave to deal with around New York Harbor. 

​On Tuesday, June 13, the high temperature in New York City was 96 degrees, and Newark hit 99° at 1:23 pm breaking the old record of 98° set in 1961. Islip Airport broke a record when it hit 93 degrees just before noon, breaking the old record of 92 set in 1988. One of the hottest spots though, was LaGuardia Airport. It had a record high temperature of 101 degrees.
 
There wasn’t even any relief along the Jersey Shore. The high temperature in Atlantic City on Monday, June 12, was 94 F, breaking the record of 93 degrees set in 2016. Not much of a record, but still a hot day at the beach.
 
As heat waves go, this certainly wasn’t the worst. The heat wave with the highest average high temperature was the ten-day heat wave of July 1977.  Its average high was 97.1°, thirteen degrees above average.  It was made famous by New York's infamous blackout, which happened on the first day of the heat wave.  The high temperature on the final day reached 104°
 
Relief will come to close out this current heat wave after the third day, when high temperatures on Wednesday are predicted to be in the 70s. But this heat wave will surely not be the last of the year. We should expect more intense weather due to climate change. Temperatures always seem to be moving upward. 
 
According to National Weather Service, the United States had the 8th warmest and 11th wettest spring on record. The average spring (March-May 2017) temperature across the contiguous U.S. was 53.5 degrees F, 2.6 degrees above average, making it the 8th warmest spring on record. From the Rockies to East Coast, most of the seasonal warmth occurred during the early and middle parts of spring.
 
The average spring precipitation total was 9.39 inches, 1.45 inches above average, making this spring the 11th wettest on record.
 
The year to date (January through May 2017) average temperature for the contiguous U.S. was 47.0 degrees F, 3.7 degrees above the 20th-century average. This YTD period was the second-warmest on record for this period.