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 2023 summary for Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River, using data averaged across the counties around the park — Pike and Wayne in Pennsylvania, and Delaware, Orange and Sullivan in New York — from 1895 through 2023, courtesy of NOAA's Climate at a Glance program.
Sunset over the Delaware River. Credit: National Park Service.
Weather or climate? Weather is what the atmosphere is doing 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.
2023 at a glance
An extremely warm, wet year: the 2nd warmest and 13th wettest since 1895.
Temperature
The year averaged 49.3°F, 3.4°F above the 1895–2022 average, and every season was warmer than normal. Eight months were above normal, with January (+11.6°F), February (+7.5°F) and December (+8.9°F) especially warm.
| Month | Average (°F) | Departure (°F) |
|---|---|---|
| January | 34.0 | +11.6 |
| February | 31.1 | +7.5 |
| March | 34.8 | +2.0 |
| April | 49.5 | +5.0 |
| May | 53.9 | −1.5 |
| June | 62.7 | −1.1 |
| July | 71.2 | +2.6 |
| August | 66.3 | −0.4 |
| September | 61.8 | +2.2 |
| October | 53.5 | +4.6 |
| November | 37.0 | −0.7 |
| December | 35.7 | +8.9 |
2023 temperature rankings by season and for the year; an arrow at the top would mean the warmest since 1895. Winter = January–March, spring = April–June, summer = July–September, autumn = October–December. Credit: National Park Service.
Precipitation
53.53 inches fell, 8.87 inches above the long-term average, with a very wet summer and autumn. July (+3.91 in.) and December (+3.88 in.) were the wettest months against normal.
| Month | Total (in.) | Departure (in.) |
|---|---|---|
| January | 3.83 | +0.78 |
| February | 1.45 | −1.38 |
| March | 3.08 | −0.34 |
| April | 4.42 | +0.67 |
| May | 2.17 | −1.83 |
| June | 4.53 | +0.29 |
| July | 8.26 | +3.91 |
| August | 6.76 | +2.50 |
| September | 5.93 | +1.92 |
| October | 3.63 | −0.15 |
| November | 2.15 | −1.38 |
| December | 7.32 | +3.88 |
2023 precipitation rankings by season and for the year; an arrow at the top would mean the wettest since 1895. Credit: National Park Service.
The long view
Since 1895, annual average temperature in these counties has risen about 0.2°F per decade, and annual precipitation about 0.49 inches per decade.
Annual average temperature and total precipitation, 1895–2023; 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 3.2–9.5°F, from the best-case to the worst-case scenario, and annual precipitation 7–14% (Gonzalez et al., 2018). Climate change is already altering wildlife migrations, bringing more destructive storms and disrupting habitats; the NPS climate change site explains more.
Sources
Based on "2023 Weather in Review: Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River," Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. Data from NOAA's NClimDiv dataset.
In these publicationsUpper Delaware Scenic & Recreational River
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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