November has been unusually warm in New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia this year. But are the temperatures high enough to break any records?
With one more day to go, November 2015 is shaping up to be one of the Top 10 warmest Novembers in more than 100 years, and possibly the warmest ever in Newark and New York City, according to the National Weather Service.
"A lot of places are running up there," James Connolly, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said in a telephone interview Monday.
"It will possibly be the warmest November on record" for Newark and also for New York City, based on Central Park data, said Connolly, who works in the weather service's office in Upton, N.Y.
In Newark, the high temperature in November usually averages 53.7 degrees, but this month it has averaged 60.9, not including Monday. Newark's low is usually 39.1 degrees, but this month it has averaged 44.1.
Dry Monday, but rainy days ahead in N.J.
Newark's overall historic average for November -- factoring in the average high and the average low -- is 46.4 degrees, but this month it has averaged 52.5 degrees, Connolly said.
A similar picture is emerging for Atlantic City and Philadelphia, said Lance Franck, a meteorologist in the weather service's Mount Holly office, which covers central and southern New Jersey as well as the Philadelphia region.
Without all the numbers crunched for the full month, Franck said he was not in a position to provide definitive historic rankings, but the data so far indicates this: "We're predicting a Top 10 warmest November for a lot of locations in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania."
Preliminary numbers compiled by the office of state climatologist David Robinson at Rutgers University show the average temperature across New Jersey was 49.4 degrees in November, which is 3.8 degrees above average. If those numbers are confirmed, this would be the fifth warmest November in the Garden State in 121 years, Robinson said.
Here's a look at the normal average temperature for Atlantic City, Newark and Philadelphia and the actual average temperature for November 2015, projected by the National Weather Service. (Click on the blue bars to see the specific numbers.)
Len Melisurgo may be reached at LMelisurgo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @LensReality. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
