Currently in NYC — November 1, 2023: Coldest day of the season so far

The weather, currently. 

Welcome to the holiday season. I can’t believe it’s already November. It will certainly feel like it on Wednesday with the arrival of the coldest air of the season. Dress warmly because our high only makes it to 49°F and the northwest breeze will make it feel even colder. Showers are possible, especially early. By the afternoon, we’ll see a mix of sun and clouds. It’s going to be a cold night, too. Lows will be in the upper 30s so be sure bundle up. Happy November!

Bike Forecast:

7 out of 10

— Stacy Blundell

What you need to know, currently.

The data are in, and October 2023 was the hottest October in history.

With a year so unusually warm as this, it’s sometimes easy to assume that scientists didn’t see it coming. That’s not quite true. In fact, global climate models created 10 years ago still are doing a great job of capturing how extreme this year is.

And it’s not just this year. In general, global temperatures in recent years have been tracking right along the middle of where scientists thought they’d be by now assuming emissions kept rising. (They have.) In fact, temperatures are not too far off from where scientists back in the 1980s thought they’d be right now, assuming a scenario of only limited climate action came true. (It has.)

So, we saw this coming. And we should have done more to stop it. And we know that ramped up action in the coming years will still work.

In the 35 years since the 1988 congressional testimony of NASA climate scientist James Hansen, humanity has now used effectively all of its atmospheric carbon budget for keeping global warming at or below 1.5°C since preindustrial levels. But it doesn’t have to go much further than that if we do what we know we need to do.

— Eric Holthaus

What you can do, currently.

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