Why is the weather in NYC area so extreme, i.e. very hot and muggy in the summer and very cold in the winter?

Question

I remember from my geography classes that ocean supposed to moderate the weather. Obviously not in NYC case....

Answer 1

You have probably noticed that the jet stream, cold fronts, and that sort of weather all moves across the U.S. from west to east. What is happening is that New York, even though it is on the coast, is getting its weather from air masses that have come across thousands of miles of land, so the effect of being near the ocean is minimal.

This is only the case in big weather events such as fronts. On days where not much is going on, I suspect that the land/sea breeze dominates the daily temperatures and makes it fairly mild.

Answer 2

As extreme as the weather is in New York City, it is actually much more extreme in other parts of the nation. I am originally from Wisconsin and lived on Lake Michigan. The jet stream swooped right down over the state and made things crazy. It could be 90 degrees one day and then the wind would shift off of the lake and a cold front would come through. The next day the temps could be in the 40's and snow would not be out of the question. I moved to Florida and I see very little variation in the weather. The temps range from 40's to upper 90's. Feels like a swamp. In the summer I don't even know why they have a weather forecast because the forecast says the same thing for 6 months straight- high of 94 and low of 78. Every day. Give or take 1 or 2 degrees. As for New York, I think the reason for the big range in temps is strictly because of the ocean currents.

Answer 3

It's called climate. Every place on earth has one.

Answer 4

because it is so close to the ocean that it is being effected by the large body of wter

Answer 5

so is the weather in Chicago