New Year’s Eve 2017 was one for the record books in New York City.
The midnight temperature in Central Park was a mere 9°F, marking the city’s second coldest New Year’s Eve on record. The coldest was in 1917 when the temperature was only 1°F. The normal low for this time of year is 28°F.
These unusually frigid conditions are the result of a deep dip in the jet stream and a lobe of the polar vortex reaching southward over much of the eastern US. They are expected to remain in place for the near future.