---
title: "You Think New York’s Record Warm Winter Is Creepy? Try This."
description: "A look at the Big Apple’s present—and an apparent Californian future."
date: "2015-12-23"
modified: "2015-12-23"
authors:
  - name: "Ben Keeshin"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/ben-keeshin"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/vintage/1426/you-think-new-yorks-record-warm-winter-is-creepy-try-this"
categories:
  - "News"
---

# You Think New York’s Record Warm Winter Is Creepy? Try This.

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/archive-images/122315_nonseq_christmasinla_hero.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

Feel that clamminess? This is bound to be [New York’s warmest December on record](<https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/23/nyregion/white-christmas-not-a-chance-in-an-unusually-balmy-new-york.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0>),

the New York Times reports, at a predicted 14.1°F above average. It’s been quite a sultry deviation. While New York in December has been the set of countless Christmas-themed movies, this year, 42nd Street, 34th Street, Central Park and all the rest are looking more like pieces from a “New York City” set on the backlot at Paramount—before the fake snow rained down. As the Times notes, not a single day this month has dropped below freezing, and most days have had a “low” higher than an average December day’s “high.” The roses in Stuyvesant Square are blooming; folks are playing basketball, shirts and skins.

Is it a one-time balmy anomaly? A taste of runaway global climate change? The new normal? Regardless, a New Yorker always has to be prepared. As such, here’s a photo of what we can expect: Christmas on Hollywood Boulevard, in Los Angeles, circa-1950. Dry roads, cool air, convertibles. The December average in California, then? Fifty-seven degrees. The average in New York, now? Fifty-one point six. Jiminy Christmas. Time to retire those sweaters for good.

## Author
Ben Keeshin is a former staff writer for Maxim, and before that, contributed writing to the digital sides of Road & Track and Vanity Fair.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/BnKshn>)