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I'm not surprised. I attribute it to the urban heat effect.
I know we've argued this before, but again, I'd say at least half of it is the ocean. If you go out to the suburbs far enough out of the heat island and still near the ocean, the fall freeze dates still are late for the Northeast.
I remember once seeing roses and a few other flowers blooming mid December. A couple were still barely hanging on on Christmas.
This 50 miles east (ocean, little heat island); fairly similar to my hometown:
I know we've argued this before, but again, I'd say at least half of it is the ocean. If you go out to the suburbs far enough out of the heat island and still near the ocean, the fall freeze dates still are late for the Northeast.
I remember once seeing roses and a few other flowers blooming mid December. A couple were still barely hanging on on Christmas.
This 50 miles east (ocean, little heat island); fairly similar to my hometown:
The Long Island station is much closer to the NYC station than the Strousburg station.
I can attest to this as well. Long Island, coastal Connecticut, coastal New Jersey, and southern/coastal Delaware have frost/freeze dates later than inland areas - this due directly to elevation and the oceanic influence. They grow hardy palms and other broadleaf evergreens on Long Island, coastal Delaware, coastal NJ, coastal CT...etc that would never survive inland west of I-95. There are times when NW New Jersey, the highlands of southeast Penn, the highlands of NW Connecticut, and the rims of the higher Hudson Valley are 20 F colder than areas on the coast like Long island, NYC, Ocean City, Cape May, New Haven, Atlantic City...etc.
Small cities like Cape May and Atlantic City only see about 80 - 90 frosts all year on average...while places like Albany see 150 or more. This has to be the oceanic influnce.
Agreed, Wavehunter. Anywhere you have an ocean (or large body of water, like the Great Lakes), the temps will always vary inland, whether warmer in the colder seasons, or cooler during the summer seasons.
Whats unique about the Northeast, is that east of the Appalachain chain, it is highly influenced by the maritime conditions of the Atlantic, and the southerly flows that occur in advance of a frontal system. This causes places like Philly to average quite mild mid winter temps, where as Pittsburg will average around 10-15 degrees (mean) colder.
Yes, 2.9 inches. But it never reached freezing; it was 33°F two nights in a row. So there has been no air frost yet but definitely ground frost.
I remember some of the hardier plants looked ok late November at my parent's house in suburban New York, but there was generally a dormant look to everything.
Although Central Park, and LaGuardia hadn't seen a freeze in October, JFK did on Oct. 31st.
Yup, ocean makes all the difference, here in the UK it certainly does.
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