Daily high temperatures increase by 29°F, from 46°F to 75°F, rarely falling below 35°F or exceeding 86°F.
Daily low temperatures increase by 28°F, from 33°F to 61°F, rarely falling below 21°F or exceeding 68°F.
For reference, on July 20, the hottest day of the year, temperatures in New York City typically range from 71°F to 85°F, while on January 29, the coldest day of the year, they range from 28°F to 39°F.
The daily average high (red line) and low (blue line) temperature, with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands. The thin dotted lines are the corresponding average perceived temperatures.
The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average spring temperatures. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day.
The average hourly temperature, color coded into bands. The shaded overlays indicate night and civil twilight.
Gedzhukh, Russia (5,672 miles away) and Yatsuomachi-higashikumisaka, Japan (6,752 miles) are the far-away foreign places with temperatures most similar to New York City (view comparison).
The spring in New York City experiences essentially constant cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy remaining about 50% throughout the season. The clearest day of the spring is April 30, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 52% of the time. For reference, on January 3, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 53%, while on August 28, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 64%.
The percentage of time spent in each cloud cover band, categorized by the percentage of the sky covered by clouds.
A wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. In New York City, the chance of a wet day over the course of the spring is very rapidly increasing, starting the season at 25% and ending it at 34%. For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 35% on July 31, and its lowest chance is 22% on January 28. Over the course of the spring in New York City, the chance of a day with only rain increases from 19% to 34%, the chance of a day with mixed snow and rain decreases from 4% to 0%, and the chance of a day with only snow remains an essentially constant 1% throughout.
The percentage of days in which various types of precipitation are observed, excluding trace quantities: rain alone, snow alone, and mixed (both rain and snow fell in the same day).
To show variation within the season and not just the monthly totals, we show the rainfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day. The average sliding 31-day rainfall during the spring in New York City is rapidly increasing, starting the season at 2.6 inches, when it rarely exceeds 4.9 inches or falls below 1.0 inches, and ending the season at 3.7 inches, when it rarely exceeds 6.6 inches or falls below 1.6 inches. The highest average 31-day accumulation is 3.7 inches on April 15.
The average rainfall (solid line) accumulated over the course of a sliding 31-day period centered on the day in question, with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands. The thin dotted line is the corresponding average snowfall.
As with rainfall, we consider the snowfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day. The average sliding 31-day snowfall during the spring in New York City is rapidly decreasing, starting the season at 4.7 inches, when it rarely exceeds 15.9 inches, and ending the season at 0.0 inches, when it rarely exceeds 0.0 inches or falls below -0.0 inches.
The average snowfall (solid line) accumulated over the course of a sliding 31-day period centered on the day in question, with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands. The thin dotted line is the corresponding average rainfall.
Over the course of the spring in New York City, the length of the day is very rapidly increasing. From the start to the end of the season, the length of the day increases by 3 hours, 35 minutes, implying an average daily increase of 2 minutes, 22 seconds, and weekly increase of 16 minutes, 31 seconds. The shortest day of the spring is March 1, with 11 hours, 19 minutes of daylight and the longest day is May 31, with 14 hours, 53 minutes of daylight.
The number of hours during which the Sun is visible (black line). From bottom (most yellow) to top (most gray), the color bands indicate: full daylight, twilight (civil, nautical, and astronomical), and full night.
The latest sunrise of the spring in New York City is 7:14 AM on March 10 and the earliest sunrise is 1 hour, 48 minutes earlier at 5:27 AM on May 31. The earliest sunset is 5:47 PM on March 1 and the latest sunset is 2 hours, 33 minutes later at 8:20 PM on May 31. Daylight saving time (DST) ends at 3:00 AM on March 10, 2024, shifting sunrise and sunset to be an hour earlier. For reference, on June 20, the longest day of the year, the Sun rises at 5:24 AM and sets 15 hours, 6 minutes later, at 8:30 PM, while on December 21, the shortest day of the year, it rises at 7:16 AM and sets 9 hours, 15 minutes later, at 4:32 PM.
The solar day in the spring. From bottom to top, the black lines are the previous solar midnight, sunrise, solar noon, sunset, and the next solar midnight. The day, twilights (civil, nautical, and astronomical), and night are indicated by the color bands from yellow to gray. The transitions to and from daylight saving time are indicated by the 'DST' labels.
The figure below presents a compact representation of the sun's elevation (the angle of the sun above the horizon) and azimuth (its compass bearing) for every hour of every day in the reporting period. The horizontal axis is the day of the year and the vertical axis is the hour of the day. For a given day and hour of that day, the background color indicates the azimuth of the sun at that moment. The black isolines are contours of constant solar elevation.
Solar elevation and azimuth in the the spring of 2024. The black lines are lines of constant solar elevation (the angle of the sun above the horizon, in degrees). The background color fills indicate the azimuth (the compass bearing) of the sun. The lightly tinted areas at the boundaries of the cardinal compass points indicate the implied intermediate directions (northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest).
The figure below presents a compact representation of key lunar data for the spring of 2024. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the colored areas indicate when the moon is above the horizon. The vertical gray bars (new Moons) and blue bars (full Moons) indicate key Moon phases. The label associated with each bar indicates the date and time that the phase is obtained, and the companion time labels indicate the rise and set times of the Moon for the nearest time interval in which the moon is above the horizon.
The time in which the moon is above the horizon (light blue area), with new moons (dark gray lines) and full moons (blue lines) indicated. The shaded overlays indicate night and civil twilight.
We base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night. The chance that a given day will be muggy in New York City is rapidly increasing during the spring, rising from 0% to 12% over the course of the season. For reference, on August 1, the muggiest day of the year, there are muggy conditions 54% of the time, while on December 14, the least muggy day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time.
This section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages. The average hourly wind speed in New York City is rapidly decreasing during the spring, decreasing from 10.1 miles per hour to 7.0 miles per hour over the course of the season. For reference, on February 26, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 10.3 miles per hour, while on July 31, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 6.2 miles per hour.
The average of mean hourly wind speeds (dark gray line), with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands.
The wind direction in New York City during the spring is predominantly out of the west from March 1 to March 13, from March 20 to May 12, and from May 24 to May 31; the north from March 13 to March 20; and the south from May 12 to May 24.
The percentage of hours in which the mean wind direction is from each of the four cardinal wind directions, excluding hours in which the mean wind speed is less than 1.0 mph. The lightly tinted areas at the boundaries are the percentage of hours spent in the implied intermediate directions (northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest).
New York City is located near a large body of water (e.g., ocean, sea, or large lake). This section reports on the wide-area average surface temperature of that water. The average surface water temperature in New York City is very rapidly increasing during the spring, rising by 20°F, from 39°F to 59°F, over the course of the season.
The daily average water temperature (purple line), with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands.
Definitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere). The growing season in New York City typically lasts for 7.8 months (238 days), from around March 28 to around November 21, rarely starting before March 11 or after April 13, and rarely ending before November 3 or after December 12. During the spring in New York City, the chance that a given day is within the growing season is very rapidly increasing rising from 1% to 100% over the course of the season.
The percentage of time spent in various temperature bands. The black line is the percentage chance that a given day is within the growing season.
Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F. The average accumulated growing degree days in New York City are rapidly increasing during the spring, increasing by 599°F, from 17°F to 616°F, over the course of the season.
The average growing degree days accumulated over the course of the spring, with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands.
This section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation. The average daily incident shortwave solar energy in New York City is very rapidly increasing during the spring, rising by 3.0 kWh, from 3.5 kWh to 6.5 kWh, over the course of the season.
The average daily shortwave solar energy reaching the ground per square meter (orange line), with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands.
For the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of New York City are 40.714 deg latitude, -74.006 deg longitude, and 30 ft elevation. The topography within 2 miles of New York City is essentially flat, with a maximum elevation change of 85 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 11 feet. Within 10 miles is essentially flat (367 feet). Within 50 miles contains only modest variations in elevation (1,657 feet). The area within 2 miles of New York City is covered by water (58%) and artificial surfaces (40%), within 10 miles by artificial surfaces (78%) and water (20%), and within 50 miles by artificial surfaces (32%) and trees (32%).
This report illustrates the typical weather in New York City, based on a statistical analysis of historical hourly weather reports and model reconstructions from January 1, 1980 to December 31, 2016.
To get a sense of how much these sources agree with each other, you can view a comparison of New York City and the stations that contribute to our estimates of its temperature history and climate. Please note that each source's contribution is adjusted for elevation and the relative change present in the MERRA-2 data.
All data relating to the Sun's position (e.g., sunrise and sunset) are computed using astronomical formulas from the book, Astronomical Algorithms 2nd Edition , by Jean Meeus. All other weather data, including cloud cover, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and solar flux, come from NASA's MERRA-2 Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis . This reanalysis combines a variety of wide-area measurements in a state-of-the-art global meteorological model to reconstruct the hourly history of weather throughout the world on a 50-kilometer grid. Land Use data comes from the Global Land Cover SHARE database , published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Elevation data comes from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) , published by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Names, locations, and time zones of places and some airports come from the GeoNames Geographical Database . Time zones for airports and weather stations are provided by AskGeo.com . Maps are © OpenStreetMap contributors.
The information on this site is provided as is, without any assurances as to its accuracy or suitability for any purpose. Weather data is prone to errors, outages, and other defects. We assume no responsibility for any decisions made on the basis of the content presented on this site. We draw particular cautious attention to our reliance on the MERRA-2 model-based reconstructions for a number of important data series. While having the tremendous advantages of temporal and spatial completeness, these reconstructions: (1) are based on computer models that may have model-based errors, (2) are coarsely sampled on a 50 km grid and are therefore unable to reconstruct the local variations of many microclimates, and (3) have particular difficulty with the weather in some coastal areas, especially small islands. We further caution that our travel scores are only as good as the data that underpin them, that weather conditions at any given location and time are unpredictable and variable, and that the definition of the scores reflects a particular set of preferences that may not agree with those of any particular reader. Please review our full terms contained on our Terms of Service page.
