A climate change dashboard for the Hudson Valley (2023 update)
2023 was the 2nd-warmest year on record in the Hudson Valley.
Last July, I shared my inaugural Hudson Valley climate change dashboard, featuring climatic trends in the region from 1940-2022.
The data for the year 2023 recently arrived. It confirmed that 2023 was the 2nd-warmest year on record for our region with an average temperature of 53˚F. It joins 2012 and 2020 as the only years to have an average temperature of at least 53˚F, some 3 degrees above the long-term median 📈
The introductory text from the original post can be found below, followed by updated charts with data from 1940-2023 as well as commentary on the state of the climate in the Hudson Valley in 2023.
I’m pleased to share a brand new climate resource for Hudson Valley educators, farmers, growers, long-term planners, policy-makers, and anyone who is interested in tracking our changing climate.
This is a project I’ve long wanted to embark on to provide some baseline information for our region. The process is largely automated, such that every year I’ll be able to run a script by around January 10th that summarizes the climate over the last year and adds a new point onto all the charts that you can explore below.
It’s a much more comprehensive version of this Twitter thread that I wrote in 2021.
The data source is the ECMWF-ERA5, which is known as an atmospheric reanalysis. Reanalysis combines model data with observations from across the world into a globally complete and consistent dataset using the laws of physics. It allows us to analyze key climate parameters over a wide area back to 1940, which is the period over which a substantial amount of warming has occurred.
Not only does the data tells us that it’s getting warmer, but our atmosphere is getting moister.
The charts below are based upon average data within a geographical area that contains the mid and lower Hudson Valley. The domain is shown below.
The plots showing the starkest trends are shared first, followed by the weather parameters that haven’t exhibited substantial changes over the last eight decades.
Time to start. First up, temperature.