New York, NY & Central Park/New York temperature differences (Boston: airports, areas)

[Apple_91]

Have you noticed that temperatures are 1-2 degrees warmer in Central Park/New York, NY than New York, NY

Why is it 1-2 degrees cooler in New York, NY than Central Park/New York, NY ?

[bluedog2]

Probably because the thermometer that they use for NY,NY is someplace other than in the middle of Central Park and the temperature actually is different wherever the thermometer is.This is not unusual.Temperatures can vary quite a bit from one section of the city to another at any given time.

[omigawd]

I would think because Central Park is an open space and other areas are closed in by buildings, etc, and that keeps them "warmer" (even if by a degree or two)

[7 Wishes]

There are actually only 3 places in the boros they officially record temperature:

Central Park
LaGuardia Airport
JFK Airport

One weird quirk about this area is the nighttime low is far higher than anywhere in the Boston-DC corridor, it only comes close in DC itself. One theory is the extreme cluster of buildings gives off heat they acquire during the day, keeping the nights very warm compared to other places.

But a strange thing about Central Park is that in the last 20 years, the daytime high has actually gotten a bit lower than it used to be, the National Weather Service once noted this on their website (on a day a couple of years ago where LaGuardia had a couple of days over 100-degrees and the park was "only" about 96 or 97), they theorized that the park is "greener" than it was in the 1970s and it lowers the daytime high. Also, for some reason, LaGuardia now has the highest nightime lows in the area, one theory is that winds tend to blow west to east and the heat given off by the Manhattan buildings at night is being blown east to LaGuardia (combined with expanding airports also having a similar effect with their asphalt tarmac).

JFK is a bit unique because it's further away from Manhattan and also on the ocean. It has significantly lower daytime high temperatures and slightly lower nighttime low temperatures. I think those "lower NYC readings" you were talking about were from JFK.