Cornell finds Northeast cities continue to log warmest years on record

A new report from the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University finds cities in the area continue to have their warmest years on record.

Notheastern cities experienced record high temperatures and low snowfall during 2023. Average temperatures in Albany last year were close to 3 degrees warmer than "normal."

34 other major municipalities including New York City, Burlington and Binghamton reported above-normal temperatures — while Worcester and Hartford had their least-snowy December.

The Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University finds 28 of the cities experienced one of their top-five warmest years. Climatologist Samantha Borisoff says 2023 was the 26th year in a row with above-normal temperatures.

"Climate change is, is always there in the background, it's helping make conditions warmer, you know, we have been experiencing warmer temperatures, particularly in winter, we've seen that trend, we expect that trend to continue," Borisoff said. "So that's kind of helping us kind of bump us to help get closer to these records, or even set these records like we did in 2023. Along with that, though, we do have kind of these various, shorter term, what we call modes of climate variability, or atmospheric teleconnections. And one of those is El Niño. And what happens is, they can shift weather patterns in the short term in such a way that can either enhance the warming that we're already seeing in the longer term, or a lot of times somewhat temporarily kind of counteract it. But with El Niño in particular, just kind of as a refresher, that is a warming of the equatorial sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, that shifts global weather patterns in such a way that we do see warmer conditions globally."

Borisoff says the unusually warm year began last January, with temperatures ranging from 6 to 12 degrees warmer than normal. Higher temperatures also prevailed in February, April, July, and most of the fall.

Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan says the city has seen both ends of extremes.

“We're seeing these really hot days. And we're also still getting some very, very cold days. And that causes challenges with our streets and potholes. So while we saved money, last year was the first year that I've been mayor that we didn't have to declare snow emergency, we certainly saw that the wear and tear with respect to potholes and repairs that had to be made, damage to trees, when trees come down, because we have more rain, and you know, these bigger events, these bigger storm events,” said Sheehan. 

Borisoff says the entire Northeast has been running a snowfall deficit, with the largest shortfalls occurring in New England, New York and northwestern Pennsylvania.

"New York City, Philadelphia, Dulles Airport have all gone quite a long period of time quickly approaching, approaching two years without seeing over an inch of snow," said Borisoff. 

Borisoff says Worcester saw a 14.9-inch departure from average snowfall amounts and Hartford had a 10.1-inch departure, while Syracuse had a snowfall scarcity of 25.8 inches below normal in December.

Borisoff says even though El Niño typically results in more nor'easters, precipitation has been falling as rain instead of snow. "The season is still pretty young. We still have January and February, which again tend to be our snowier months with the preferred pattern of El Niño with the coastal storms, there is the likelihood that we will see you more nor'easters this winter. And there is still the chance that that streak of, you know, that record streak, could be broken. You know, it only takes one storm and we still have two more months of winter to kind of get through," Borisoff said.

Sheehan says climate change poses several challenges. "When you have a big storm event, and people lose power, and they're not able to get that power turned on quickly enough, you know, you can lose an entire refrigerator and freezer full of food," Sheehan said. "When you have issues around the stability of the grid, you know, we always get concerned about seniors and those who are relying on oxygen, for example. It requires us to strategize differently, and to think about when it gets warmer, just as now we require that heat has to be provided by landlords during certain months of the year, is that going to shift and are we going to have to require air conditioning? And really, as we look at low income housing and building affordable housing, how are we going to cool it?"

Borisoff says climate change has its pros and cons such as a longer growing season and the appearance of wildlife not usually seen so far north versus the proliferation of insects such as ticks that can spread various diseases. She says it's not too late to mitigate warming.

 "Small things add up. So, you know, what we can do individually to help reduce emissions. While it might seem 'oh like I'm one person,' if we each do that, we each take the small steps, it's cumulative, and we can kind of help the bigger picture," said Borisoff.