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To track ecosystem health, the National Park Service's Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network monitors "vital signs" at parks in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York — weather and climate among them. This is the 2021 summary for New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, using data averaged across the three surrounding counties — Fayette, Raleigh and Summers, West Virginia — from 1895 through 2021, courtesy of NOAA's Climate at a Glance program.
Weather or climate? Weather is what's happening in the atmosphere right now and over minutes to months. Climate is what you expect based on patterns of 30 years or more — climate is the hot summer you expect; weather is the warm rainy day you get.
2021 at a glance
The year was warmer than normal — the 19th warmest on record — while total precipitation came in close to the long-term average.
Temperature
The year averaged 53.4°F, 1.4°F above the 1895–2020 average. Every season was warmer than normal except spring, which was cold. Seven months were warmer than usual, and March, October and December were each more than 4°F above average — December by 9.1°F.
| Month | Average (°F) | Departure (°F) |
|---|---|---|
| January | 32.6 | +1.0 |
| February | 32.5 | −1.2 |
| March | 46.2 | +4.2 |
| April | 51.1 | −0.6 |
| May | 58.3 | −2.4 |
| June | 68.2 | +0.4 |
| July | 71.2 | −0.2 |
| August | 73.2 | +3.0 |
| September | 64.7 | +0.2 |
| October | 58.7 | +5.0 |
| November | 40.7 | −2.1 |
| December | 43.0 | +9.1 |
2021 temperature rankings by season and for the year; an arrow at the top would mean the warmest on record since 1895. Credit: National Park Service.
Precipitation
43.13 inches fell, 1.22 inches below the long-term average — a near-normal year overall, though winter was wet and spring and autumn were dry.
| Month | Total (in.) | Departure (in.) |
|---|---|---|
| January | 3.79 | +0.25 |
| February | 4.48 | +1.27 |
| March | 5.26 | +1.20 |
| April | 2.90 | −0.81 |
| May | 2.33 | −1.88 |
| June | 4.80 | +0.47 |
| July | 3.38 | −1.50 |
| August | 6.21 | +2.14 |
| September | 3.46 | +0.31 |
| October | 3.25 | +0.35 |
| November | 1.19 | −1.73 |
| December | 2.07 | −1.29 |
2021 precipitation rankings by season and for the year; an arrow at the top would mean the wettest on record since 1895. Credit: National Park Service.
The long view
Since 1895, both annual average temperature and annual precipitation around the park have risen by about 0.04 per decade — 0.04°F and 0.04 inches, respectively.
Annual average temperature and total precipitation since 1895; dashed lines show the linear trends. Credit: National Park Service.
Park Service scientists project that by 2100, annual average temperature at the park will rise by 2.9–8.6°F, from the best-case to the worst-case scenario, and annual precipitation by 6–11% (Gonzalez et al., 2018). The park's climate change page describes the effects already being felt.
Sources
Based on "2021 Weather in Review: New River Gorge National Park and Preserve," Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.
En estas publicacionesNew River Gorge National Park & Preserve
Licencia: CC0 1.0 (dominio público) · Adaptado de www.nps.gov
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