Rare Temperature Record Dates Back to 1886 in Eastern U.S. Resort

Every day since Jan. 1, 1896, a consistent record of temperature has been kept by a single family and its friends at The Mohonk Preserve, a resort and nature area 90 miles north of New York City. The record, maintained for the National Weather Service, is a rare one — 114 years of readings taken on a daily basis, in the same, shaded spot, in protected surroundings that have not changed. The results, reported in the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, reveal significant trends: from 1896 to 2006 (the end-point of a recent study), temperatures went up 2.63 degrees F. Before 1980, the number of days a year exceeding 89 degrees F rarely was more than 10; now, temperatures often surpass 89 degrees on more than 20 days a year. The number of freezing days per year has declined by about a day every five years over the last 114 years, and since the 1970s the number of freezing days has dropped at a rate of a day every two years. The 2.63 temperature increase is similar to other records in the northeastern U.S., which show temperatures rising 2 to 4 degrees F since 1950. The number of above-freezing days has increased markedly, creating more false springs where plants bloom and then are subjected to damaging freezes, according to records kept by the family, which runs the Mohonk Mountain House resort.