To track the health of park ecosystems, the National Park Service's Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network monitors "vital signs" in parks in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. Weather and climate are among them. This summary covers 2022 at Fort Necessity National Battlefield, using county-level data for Fayette County, Pennsylvania, going back to 1895, from NOAA's Climate at a Glance program.
The Great Meadows at Fort Necessity National Battlefield (NPS photo).
Weather or climate? Weather is the short-term state of the atmosphere, from minutes to months — whatever is happening outside right now. Climate is what to expect from long-term patterns of 30 years or more. Put simply, climate is what you expect, like a hot summer; weather is what you get, like a warm rainy day.
2022 at a glance
Temperatures were near normal and precipitation slightly above average. The year ranked as Fayette County's 54th warmest and 39th wettest since 1895.
Temperature
Eight months were warmer than normal, but a very cold January and October kept the year's average just 0.2°F above the long-term average.
| Month | Average (°F) | Compared with 1895–2021 (°F) |
|---|---|---|
| January | 24.2 | −3.6 |
| February | 31.7 | +2.3 |
| March | 41.2 | +2.8 |
| April | 48.0 | −1.1 |
| May | 61.3 | +2.2 |
| June | 67.2 | +0.1 |
| July | 71.4 | +0.5 |
| August | 70.1 | +0.7 |
| September | 62.8 | −0.6 |
| October | 48.8 | −3.4 |
| November | 43.0 | +2.1 |
| December | 31.6 | +0.3 |
| Year | 50.1 | +0.2 |
Seasonal and annual temperature rankings for 2022 (NPS). Winter is January–March, spring April–June, summer July–September and autumn October–December.
Precipitation
Most seasons were a little wetter than usual. In all, 48.54 inches fell — 3.13 inches above the long-term average.
| Month | Total (in.) | Compared with 1895–2021 (in.) |
|---|---|---|
| January | 4.07 | +0.57 |
| February | 4.97 | +2.00 |
| March | 2.37 | −1.54 |
| April | 4.26 | +0.35 |
| May | 5.58 | +1.26 |
| June | 3.84 | −0.88 |
| July | 4.85 | +0.11 |
| August | 4.99 | +0.82 |
| September | 3.83 | +0.32 |
| October | 2.64 | −0.46 |
| November | 4.07 | +0.94 |
| December | 3.07 | −0.36 |
| Year | 48.54 | +3.13 |
Long-term trends
Since 1895, Fayette County's annual average temperature has risen about 0.04°F per decade, and annual precipitation about 0.34 inches per decade.
Annual average temperature and total precipitation, 1895–2022; dashed lines show the linear trends (NPS).
Looking ahead, National Park Service scientists project that by 2100 the park's annual average temperature will rise 3.1 to 9.2°F, from best-case to worst-case scenarios, and annual precipitation will increase 6 to 12% (Gonzalez and others, 2018).
Rapid climate change is challenging national parks in new ways: shifting wildlife migrations, more destructive storms that threaten cultural resources and park facilities, and disrupted habitat. The National Park Service's climate change pages explain the effects on parks, what the agency is doing, and how visitors can help.
Sources
- National Park Service, Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network: "2022 Weather in Review: Fort Necessity National Battlefield," using NOAA's NClimDiv dataset.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
1
0
0
0
Comments
