2012 heat causes temperature records to fall

Jan 4, 2013

As far as weather measurements go, Syracuse crushed its old record for the warmest year ever recorded. Central New Yorkers dealt with the warmest temperatures in more than 80 years during 2012.

Syracuse was 1.1 degrees warmer in 2012 than in 1931, at an average temperature of 52.6 degrees.

Researchers at Cornell University and the Northeast Regional Climate Center collected temperature data on 35 cities in the Northeast. Twenty-three of them broke records.

More and more of the old standing records, like Syracuse's, are falling, says climatologist Samantha Borisoff.

"A lot of the warmest years that we’ve had recently have been recent," she says. "Those records from the 1920s and the 1930s, there’s not really a lot of those left anymore."

Cities across upstate New York and the Northeast dealt with multiple days with temps in the 90s last summer.

Buffalo and Binghamton both broke records going back to 1998.

Statewide data and how the Northeast compared to the rest of the country will come out next week.

Here's how the 35 cities faired:

Credit Northeast Regional Climate Center