Hello readers! A friend told me that Fox news is actually pretty objective – the main news report, not the ancillary shows full of foaming-mouth loonies. I’ve watched a bit now and, sure, the local SF Bay Area Fox news is supportive of Pride, for example. However, by accepting Fox and its likeable newscasters as your trusted friends you’re now vulnerable to manipulation. Here’s what I saw next!

You’ve been outfoxed!

On Wednesday I saw a report on the Fox Weather channel on New York temperature records, as they were possibly about to be broken. The presenter – a meteorologist, presumably (I didn’t catch his name but it was a white man, if that helps narrow it down) – showed a chart of record temperatures in New York’s Central Park. He then drew attention to the fact that the record high was set all the way back in 1936.

He then makes a big song and dance about how long ago this record was set, how people talk about it getting hotter but that we need to put all of this in perspective. He then ended his low-key tirade with, “The science matter to me!”

Well let’s take a look at the actual science, shall we?

Is New York getting hotter?

The top 10 hottest and coldest days in Central Park are shown in the table below (data from the US Gov. National Weather Service). These records run from 1869 to 2025 – that’s a 156-year stretch. 1936 is the only date in the first half of that time span (1869 to 1947). Half of these top 10 scorchers have occurred since the 1990’s – i.e., in the most recent 20% of this time span. And it’s going to be more than half once we add in the 2026 records (not shown below). (Not to mention the hotties turning up for TayTay’s wedding party today!)

I’ll also point out that all of the 10 coldest days in Central Park between 1869 and 2025 have occurred before 1918. But I should also take a step back (as would any competent meteorologist) and look at broader data. For climate records that go back 156 years, it makes sense to chart the average annual Central Park temperature. Well thank you, Lilyo on Reddit for doing this already!

Lilyo’s chart below also uses data from the US Gov. National Weather Service that captures the average annual temperature in Central Park. I checked the data and it’s correct, and also added points for the last few years, which very much fit the trendline (in red). This trendline shows an increase in Central Park’s average annual temperature from 1869 to 2025 of around 4.6°F (51.7°F to 56.3°F). In Celsius this corresponds to a jump of 2.6°C (from 10.9°C to 13.5°C).  

Of course temperatures fluctuate quite a bit. The average annual temp in Central Park for both 2023 and 2024 reached 57.9°F – a high since records began in 1869, and then 2025’s average was a good bit cooler, at 55.6°F. But the trend is unmistakable and pretty much undeniable.

And, of course, this trend is not unique to Central Park. It is not due to some local phenomenon such as NY squirrels acquiring the ability to make campfires to roast their nuts over.

If we pan out geographically and look at global average temperatures, we can see that the trend is – once again – undeniable. Here’s a nice visualization from NASA – it’s out of date and doesn’t include the most recent record-breaking years. The NASA Climate Change YouTube channel was shut down mid-2025, funnily enough.

Here’s an alternative view that includes data from the last three years, also from NASA (just not on YouTube):

As a follow-up, I want to ask you a question, but it can wait until tomorrow.

To be continued…