Historically, published temperature summaries have been presented primarily as mean values. Except for temperature records, information about extreme values is limited to monthly tallies of days with a maximum temperature greater than or equal to 90 degrees and less than or equal to 32 degrees. Monthly tallies also exist for days with a minimum temperature less than or equal to 32 degrees and 0 degrees. However, other temperature thresholds may be more meaningful for assessing climate impacts. In addition, existing summaries do not provide information about the duration of heat waves and cold spells. Considering these limitations and the impacts of extreme temperature events, this comprehensive climatology of extreme temperature occurrences for the Northeast is beneficial to a wide range of users in agriculture, government, the energy industry, and research.
For brevity, the data presented in this climatology are limited to a representative group of northeastern United States stations. In addition, only select temperature threshold and percentile values are presented. However such data are available for numerous additional stations in the Northeast and may be obtained from the Northeast Regional Climate Center.
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