Central Park averages 49.5 inches of precipitation a year, but when it falls matters as much as how much. This interactive analysis looks at New York City from 2020 through 2025 and compares Friday–Sunday with Monday–Thursday: rain rate, heavy-rain days, cloud cover and humidity. It also follows the storm track from Chicago to NYC and examines whether weekday pollution plays a role. Whether you're planning outdoor events or studying weather patterns, it shows how NYC rain is distributed across the week.
49.5 inches is the average annual precipitation at Central Park, based on the National Weather Service's 1991–2020 climate normals. The wettest year on record was 1983 at 80.56 inches and the driest was 1965 at 26.09 inches.
4.6 inches is the average July rainfall at Central Park, narrowly the wettest month in New York City (August averages 4.56 inches), per the National Weather Service's 1991–2020 normals. Monthly averages: Jan 3.64, Feb 3.19, Mar 4.29, Apr 4.09, May 3.96, Jun 4.54, Jul 4.60, Aug 4.56, Sep 4.31, Oct 4.38, Nov 3.58, Dec 4.38 inches. April through September accounts for about 53% of annual precipitation. The dashboard breaks down NYC rain by month and day of the week across 2020–2025.
36-50 inches per year is the range across New York State, with significant variation by region. Buffalo averages about 40 inches annually while the Adirondacks can see 50+ inches. NYC and Long Island tend toward the higher end due to coastal moisture effects.
Annual precipitation across New York State increased at a rate of 0.47 inches per decade from 1901 to 2022, according to the New York State Climate Impacts Assessment. The amount of precipitation falling in the heaviest 1% of daily events in the Northeast rose 55% from 1958 to 2016, according to the Fourth National Climate Assessment.
Central Park normals and records come from the National Weather Service (1991–2020 normals). The embedded 2020–2025 day-of-week analysis lists Open-Meteo, ERA5 reanalysis, EPA AirData and MTA ridership as its sources; its own data note says its figures are based on aerosol-CCN model parameters, so treat its weekend-vs-weekday percentages as illustrative rather than official observations.