Good morning. It's Monday, and, because it's National Weatherperson's Day, we'll look at where New York's forecasts come from. We'll also find out what happened to a police robot.
It's going to be sunny in New York today, National Weatherperson's Day. The high will be in the low 40s. Many of the forecasts conveying that information will be written by meteorologists who are nowhere near New York. If they looked out a window, they would not see the New York imperiousness of the skyline, the New York sparkle of the bridges or the New York yellow of the taxis. The New York office of the National Weather Service is on Long Island, 65 miles from Times Square. AccuWeather, the forecasting service, has 100 forecasters turning out predictions at its headquarters in State College, Pa. The Weather Company, which operates the Weather Channel app and the websites weather.com and Weather Underground, is just outside Atlanta. "The way forecasts are made these days, you don't have to be there," said Melissa Medori of the Weather Company. And with data from automated weather stations and weather "spotters" in the city, "even out here," Dave Radell, a Weather Service meteorologist, said from Long Island, "we have plenty of data to sift through to let us know what's happening in the city." For the record, the forecast in New York Today is written in New York, largely based on the Weather Service's predictions. The weather forecast for the print issue of The New York Times comes from AccuWeather. The Times also has a weather data team with a meteorologist who works from Atlanta. National Weatherperson's Day recognizes those who follow the lead of a colonial-era Bostonian, John Jeffries. He became one of America's first weather observers when he began recording daily conditions in 1774. Jeffries kept tabs on the weather until 1816, but there was a 14-year gap, starting in 1776. During the Revolutionary War, Jeffries had tended to wounded redcoats. That put him on an enemies list of sorts: He was among 300 Tories named in a Massachusetts law that made it illegal for them to return to that state. Apparently things were patched up by 1790, when he again took up residence in Boston and resumed his weather work. There are no such gaps in the weather records for New York City, but they go back only to 1869 — and involve less drama. Automated readings, except when it snowsNew York is unusual these days: The Weather Service bases its forecasts on readings of temperature, humidity and precipitation that come from within the city itself — from a fenced-off area in the shadow of Belvedere Castle in Central Park. Meteorology discovered remote technology long before much of the rest of the world did, so no one takes readings in Central Park except when it snows. When that happens, only rarely in the past couple of years, the Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit group that manages the park, sends staff members out to measure the snowfall and report their findings to the Weather Service. New York went 701 days without significant accumulation, until Jan. 16, when a modest 1.7 inches fell. Is it harder to predict the weather for New York than for other places? "Everybody tells you their place is the worst to forecast, yada yada," said Dale Eck, the director of the Weather Company's global forecast center.
But, he said, the city's proximity to the Atlantic Ocean can make a difference when a winter storm is barreling toward New York. And Jonathan Porter, AccuWeather's chief meteorologist, said that a relatively small shift in a storm track might matter. "For things right along the I-95 corridor, a difference of 10 or 12 miles can mean very little snow or an icy mix or a foot or more of snow," Porter said, recalling a recent storm when the rain-snow line followed Interstate 95 up the East Coast. Radell of the Weather Service mentioned a statewide network that provides data on observations from 126 locations every five minutes around the clock. But that network, the New York State Mesonet, operated by SUNY Albany, is merely collecting data, not delivering forecasts, according to its director, Christopher Thorncroft. He doubles as director of the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center at the university, which also looks after the New York City Micronet, a string of 17 weather-monitoring stations at Con Edison installations across the city.
The Mesonet can help state and local officials know when a storm becomes fiercer than forecast, Thorncroft said, as when torrential rain from Hurricane Ida turned some basement apartments into death traps in 2021. WEATHER Enjoy a sunny day in the low 40s. The evening will be clear, with temperatures dropping to the high 20s. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Friday (Lunar New Year's Eve). The latest Metro news
We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. A robot goes into retirement
It was an unceremonious end to a brief trial run that began with considerable fanfare. The Police Department's robot, a squat 5-foot-3-inch presence in the Times Square subway station since September, has been retired. The device, weighing 400 pounds and known as the Knightscope K5, was initially deployed to provide an extra set of eyes on crime. It had limited mobility — it could not use stairs — and it needed chaperones. The police assigned officers to go along on its rounds. "Who cared for who, the robot for the police, or the police for the robot?" asked Jose Natera, a construction worker who said that he usually saw two officers standing awkwardly beside it. Adams had hoped that the robot would bring safety and order to the subway at a time when crime remains a pressing concern for many New Yorkers. The robot was to have provided an extra set of eyes in a system where ridership is still well below prepandemic levels. On Friday, my colleagues Dana Rubinstein and Hurubie Meko wrote, the robot sat like a sad Wall-E, gathering dust in an empty storefront in the station. A spokesman for the mayor said that the robot had worked a midnight-to-6 a.m. shift. On Thursday, two police officers standing at the turnstiles near where the robot was parked said that they could not recall ever having seen the robot on the beat, although they noted that they were not assigned to the station regularly. One of the officers said he was relieved that the robot had been mothballed. He did not want to be responsible for it. METROPOLITAN DIARY Free day in Manhattan
Dear Diary: The first time I ever visited New York City was in June 2001 as part of a youth group working for a week at a church on Staten Island. The trip involved spending most of the week at the church, but we were scheduled to have one free day in Manhattan. It was my sole purpose for going. When the day came for our trip to Manhattan, we were all asked what we wanted to see. I asked to go to Chinatown. My father had immigrated to the United States from Hong Kong and had spent some time in Chinatown before moving south and meeting my mother. The group leader agreed to add my stop to the list, and off we went. After making the rounds at several other tourist spots, it was time for Chinatown. I was looking forward to crowded walkways, street vendors and maybe a quick snack at a dumpling place. As we made our way up the subway steps, my excitement was squashed when another girl said she couldn't handle the strong odor coming from the stores with fish displayed out on the sidewalk. We quickly went back into the subway at Canal Street. Our next stop — a chain store in Midtown — was chosen by the girl who had objected to the fish smell. I live in the city now and have never gone back to that store, but I have had many dumplings in Chinatown. — Ginger Lau Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Melissa Guerrero and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
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N.Y. Today: They predict our weather — from afar
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