Is New York Getting Hotter?
New York has warmed 1.4 degrees since the 1900s, placing it in the middle tier of global cities for warming. The record spans 138 years and the trend is clear.
The warming hasn't been steady. The first half of the record saw a change of roughly 0.4 degrees, while the second half has already added 1.0 degrees. The acceleration is unmistakable.
Average Annual Temperature by Decade
New York's 1.4 degree warming since 1900 is close to the global land average, but the city-level experience is far more uneven. Manhattan's dense canyon streets trap heat and can be several degrees warmer than surrounding suburbs. During the 2006 North American heat wave, some neighbourhoods in the Bronx recorded temperatures 8 degrees above Central Park. These micro-climate differences have real health consequences, with heat-related mortality concentrated in lower-income areas with less green space and older housing stock.
New York's warming is close to the average across the 29 major cities in our global dataset.
Decade by Decade
| Decade | Avg Temp (C) | Change from 1900s |
|---|
How New York Compares Globally
Among the world's major cities, New York's warming rate places it around the middle of the pack. Here is how New York stacks up against other global cities.
Key Numbers
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About This Data
Temperature data on this page comes from the Global Historical Climatology Network version 4 (GHCN v4), maintained by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. GHCN v4 contains monthly mean temperature data for over 25,000 stations across the globe, with records dating back to the 18th century for some stations. The data has been quality-controlled and homogenised using the Pairwise Homogeneity Algorithm to remove artificial discontinuities from station moves, equipment changes, and observation practice changes.
New York's primary station is New York Wb City, with records spanning 1876-2013. The "change" figures compare each decade's average to the 1900s baseline. Note that some of the warming in large cities is attributable to the urban heat island effect rather than regional climate change alone. The figures shown here include both components, as they represent what the city actually experiences.
NASA GISTEMP analysis, which processes GHCN v4 data, is a product of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. It is produced as a US Government work and is in the public domain.