Is NYC Monsoon Season Over?

Sun's out guns out.

Maybe you're having trouble remembering a time before our city dripped with endless hot droplets of rain. I hear you! Stepping outside over the past week has felt akin to unwittingly walking into a sauna, without any of the pore-opening benefits that come with a bonafide steam bath. No good.

While it may not have seemed like it earlier, when the heavens opened up to unleash an ungodly downpour during morning commute hours, today is the summer solstice and marks the official beginning of the Hot Times. And that rain we saw earlier has moved on, according to Brian Ciemneck, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. "The showers that are moving through the city are the last of them for now," he tells Gothamist.

If it's felt like a particularly rainy spring, that's because it has been—there's been a slight uptick in rain over the past few months. So far this month we've had 3.93 inches of rain, compared to 3.11 inches for the entirety of June last year, Ciemneck told Gothamist. A lot more rain fell this past May, too (6.82 inches, compared to 3.53 inches in May 2018). All told, that's more than what's climatologically normal for this time of year, which has been exacerbated by an "unsettled weather pattern" in the last few days, he added.

But you can put away the umbrellas for now. It's looking like both Saturday and Sunday will be dry and warm. Mercifully, Ciemneck says it'll feel less swampy out, too. "The dew points are gonna be falling, so it’s gonna feel a lot more comfortable outside as well," he says. Perfect caftan weather.

And while some people, including my colleague Chris Robbins, are psyched about this long day (the sun won't go down until around 8:30 p.m.), and the heat it will continue to bring over the next couple of months, others are less enthusiastic about the season. So if summer and its endless social pressures don't make you feel joyful, consider checking out our Summer Sucks series/support group.