Ha. Well, winters here vary widely. Some years it's very cold and we get lots of snow, other years are much more mild. We're subject to a weather phenomena called "noreasters" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noreaster), which are storms that blow down from Canada and bring lots of wind and cold rain and/or snow and/or ice. (there's all kinds of things that I didn't know about them in the wiki article :) ).
Winters were definitely colder about 200 years ago. Typical temperatures vary widely, depending on where you are in the state. Are your boys in New York City or upstate some place? I seem to recall that they were heading upstate. With that in mind, and accounting for it being colder in the past, typical temperatures (in celsius) in the NYC area would probably be: December: -6 to 5 January and February: -15 to 0 March: -6 to 5
I'd guess that NYC would average about a meter of snow per year, maybe 1.5 meters, but individual days often have high temperatures above freezing, and so we don't tend to get much accumulation in the long term. Some years, though, there's virtually no snow; the record in my life time involved a day when we got a meter of snow in one DAY, and almost 3 meters over the winter.
Here's a link that gives aggregated data of records and such by month: historical data for NYC (http://www.myforecast.com/bin/climate.m?city=24384&metric=false). However, most data like this only reflects about the last 100 years, and is therefore deceptive for NYC - 200 years ago would have been considerably colder because cities generate and hold a lot of heat and tend to be warmer than the surrounding areas; make the city much smaller, and these effects will be greatly decreased. Also note that this data is in Fahrenheit (here's a converter (http://www.wbuf.noaa.gov/tempfc.htm)) and inches and such.
It rarely gets cold enough that the Hudson and the East river freeze - they have too much salt water - but inlets and slower moving sections often do freeze over (for example, this picture (http://www.nexisnet.com/ice/ice00.jpg) is of a friend of mine from HS standing on frozen bit of the Hudson which wasn't part of the main river flow - the building in the background is where I went to HS ;) )
In upstate New York (my frame of reference is Binghamton (http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=binghamton&ie=UTF8&ll=42.187829,-75.915527&spn=3.589532,10.283203&z=7&iwloc=addr), where I lived for 5 years): December: -6 to 0 January and February: -18 to -4 March: -6 to 0
Binghamton gets a LOT of snow, averaging 2 to 3 meters a year, and it often accumulates. Clearing areas so that people can pass through is hard work, and these areas tend to accumulate frightening amounts of black ice, making footing treacherous (the number of times I almost broke my neck!). The rivers in upstate New York almost always freeze over, though I'm not sure about the Finger Lakes.
Here's some aggregate data for Binghamton (http://www.myforecast.com/bin/climate.m?city=23874&metric=false).
Ain't the internet grand? Hope this stuff helps! :)
Oh! And the shortest that days get here is (of course) on December 21st or so; typically there are about 8 to 9 hours of daylight on that day. I should know; it's my birthday. ;)
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-05-06 01:43 pm (UTC)Winters were definitely colder about 200 years ago. Typical temperatures vary widely, depending on where you are in the state. Are your boys in New York City or upstate some place? I seem to recall that they were heading upstate. With that in mind, and accounting for it being colder in the past, typical temperatures (in celsius) in the NYC area would probably be:
December: -6 to 5
January and February: -15 to 0
March: -6 to 5
I'd guess that NYC would average about a meter of snow per year, maybe 1.5 meters, but individual days often have high temperatures above freezing, and so we don't tend to get much accumulation in the long term. Some years, though, there's virtually no snow; the record in my life time involved a day when we got a meter of snow in one DAY, and almost 3 meters over the winter.
Here's a link that gives aggregated data of records and such by month: historical data for NYC (http://www.myforecast.com/bin/climate.m?city=24384&metric=false). However, most data like this only reflects about the last 100 years, and is therefore deceptive for NYC - 200 years ago would have been considerably colder because cities generate and hold a lot of heat and tend to be warmer than the surrounding areas; make the city much smaller, and these effects will be greatly decreased. Also note that this data is in Fahrenheit (here's a converter (http://www.wbuf.noaa.gov/tempfc.htm)) and inches and such.
It rarely gets cold enough that the Hudson and the East river freeze - they have too much salt water - but inlets and slower moving sections often do freeze over (for example, this picture (http://www.nexisnet.com/ice/ice00.jpg) is of a friend of mine from HS standing on frozen bit of the Hudson which wasn't part of the main river flow - the building in the background is where I went to HS ;) )
In upstate New York (my frame of reference is Binghamton (http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=binghamton&ie=UTF8&ll=42.187829,-75.915527&spn=3.589532,10.283203&z=7&iwloc=addr), where I lived for 5 years):
December: -6 to 0
January and February: -18 to -4
March: -6 to 0
Binghamton gets a LOT of snow, averaging 2 to 3 meters a year, and it often accumulates. Clearing areas so that people can pass through is hard work, and these areas tend to accumulate frightening amounts of black ice, making footing treacherous (the number of times I almost broke my neck!). The rivers in upstate New York almost always freeze over, though I'm not sure about the Finger Lakes.
Here's some aggregate data for Binghamton (http://www.myforecast.com/bin/climate.m?city=23874&metric=false).
Ain't the internet grand? Hope this stuff helps! :)
Oh! And the shortest that days get here is (of course) on December 21st or so; typically there are about 8 to 9 hours of daylight on that day. I should know; it's my birthday. ;)