The Park Service's Mid-Atlantic Inventory and Monitoring Network tracks ecosystem "vital signs" across the region, weather and climate among them. This is its summary of 2023 at Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site, using county data for Adams County, PA, from 1895 to 2023, from NOAA's Climate at a Glance program.
A redbud in bloom, with a monument behind. NPS photo.
Weather is the short-term state of the atmosphere — minutes to months: the rain, snow or sunshine outside right now. Climate is what to expect from patterns over 30 years or more. Climate is what you expect; weather is what you get.
2023 in brief
- An extremely warm year: 2nd warmest on record (since 1895).
- Below-normal precipitation: 25th driest, with a very dry winter and spring.
- Over the long term, the county's average temperature has risen about 0.2°F per decade and its precipitation about 0.25 inches per decade.
Temperature
The year averaged 54.7°F, 3.3°F above the 1895–2022 average. Every season but spring was very warm, and nine months were warmer than usual.
| Month | Average (°F) | Departure (°F) |
|---|---|---|
| January | 38.9 | +10.1 |
| February | 39.8 | +9.4 |
| March | 41.7 | +2.0 |
| April | 55.2 | +4.9 |
| May | 58.7 | −2.1 |
| June | 67.4 | −1.7 |
| July | 76.4 | +2.7 |
| August | 73.0 | +1.4 |
| September | 67.0 | +2.2 |
| October | 56.7 | +3.1 |
| November | 42.3 | 0.0 |
| December | 39.7 | +7.4 |
Figure 1. 2023 seasonal and annual temperature rankings for Adams County, from coldest (bottom) to warmest (top) since 1895. Winter is January–March, spring April–June, summer July–September, autumn October–December. NPS.
Precipitation
Over the year the county got 6.35 inches less than its long-term average, making 2023 the 25th driest on record, with a very dry winter and spring.
Figure 2. 2023 seasonal and annual precipitation rankings for Adams County, from driest (bottom) to wettest (top) since 1895. NPS.
The long view
Since 1895, the county's average temperature has risen about 0.2°F per decade and its precipitation about 0.25 inches per decade. National Park Service scientists' models project that by 2100 the parks' average temperature will rise 3.1–9.2°F (best to worst case) and precipitation 7–14% (Gonzalez et al., 2018).
Figure 3. Annual average temperature and total precipitation for Adams County, 1895–2023; dashed lines show the linear trend. NPS.
Rapid climate change challenges the parks as never before — shifting wildlife migrations, more destructive storms threatening cultural resources and facilities, disrupted habitat. The NPS climate change site explains the effects, the Park Service's response, and how to help. More on the network's weather and climate monitoring.
Sources
Based on "2023 Weather in Review: Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site," National Park Service, Mid-Atlantic Inventory and Monitoring Network, with data from NOAA's Climate at a Glance program and NClimDiv dataset (version v1.0.0-20240105); a work of the United States government in the public domain. The source's monthly precipitation table is labelled 2022 while the text describes 2023, so only the text's figures are given.
In these publicationsEisenhower National Historic SiteGettysburg National Military Park
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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