New York · 51 m elevation

Barometric Pressure in New York, NY

• 30.03Average pressure (inHg, sea level)
• 241.6Swing days a year · 7th of 50
• 137.1Big-swing days a year (≥10 hPa)
• 138.0Significant 24h drop days a year

Overview

New York averages 30.03 inHg (1017.0 hPa) with 241.6 significant pressure swing days a year — 7th most volatile of 50 US cities. Records and monthly data.

New York City averages 30.03 inHg (1017.0 hPa) at sea level, with a median of 30.03 inHg (1016.9 hPa). Ninety percent of hours fall between 29.65 inHg (1004.2 hPa) and 30.42 inHg (1030.3 hPa) — a spread of 0.77 inHg (26.1 hPa). Standard deviation is 0.23 inHg (7.88 hPa), 8th highest of the 50 cities in this dataset and about 15% above the national median of 6.87 hPa.

At 51 meters elevation, the city sits close enough to sea level that the correction is small but not zero. Mean station pressure is 29.85 inHg (1010.9 hPa), about 0.18 inHg (6.1 hPa) below the sea-level values quoted in forecasts. A home barometer reading raw station pressure will run consistently low by roughly that amount unless it's calibrated to altimeter setting.

New York ranks 7th of 50 for significant swing days — 241.6 per year where the 24-hour change reaches at least 0.18 inHg (6 hPa) — against a national median of 180.7. Big-swing days of 0.30 inHg (10 hPa) or more come 137.1 times a year, 8th nationally and 1.59 times the median of 86.1. But the ranking that really defines this city is the extreme: the sharpest 24-hour fall in the record is 1.41 inHg (47.6 hPa), second deepest of all 50 cities, behind only Boston. Denver logs more swing days than New York does, yet New York's worst drop is 21% deeper. That's a difference in mechanism — the Front Range churns constantly at moderate amplitude, while the Northeast coast is quieter on average and then delivers something violent.

Migraine & pressure-sensitivity outlook

• Low — under 6 hPa (0.18 inHg)
• Elevated — 6 to 10 hPa
• High — 10 hPa (0.30 inHg) or more
• Dashed outline = forecast (after today)

Association only. This calendar shows days when pressure changed — or is forecast to change — sharply over 24 hours, conditions associated with pressure sensitivity in some people. It is not a prediction of symptoms, not a diagnosis, and not medical advice. The 30 days of history are there so you can compare the days you actually felt something against what the barometer did. Talk to a clinician about headache or migraine management.

For people who track barometric pressure as a possible trigger, New York is a demanding location — but a seasonal one. Significant swing days of 0.18 inHg (6 hPa) or more arrive 241.6 times a year, and 138 of those are falls rather than rises. The typical day sees a 24-hour change of about 0.13 inHg (4.4 hPa), which is unremarkable; the 95th-percentile day sees 0.49 inHg (16.5 hPa), the kind of movement many pressure-sensitive people report as a trigger. On the fastest days, changes of 0.14 inHg (roughly 4.7–4.8 hPa) occur within a single six-hour window.

The calendar matters more here than in most cities. February averages 16.3 drop days, December 16.2, and January 16.0 — better than one every other day — while July averages 4.9 and August 5.7. Anyone logging symptoms alongside pressure in New York will find the drops clustered in winter and a genuinely quiet stretch from June through September, rather than the steady year-round churn seen in Plains cities. Late December through mid-March is also when the deep, fast falls occur: every one of the top five drops in the record landed in that window.

In national terms, New York sees roughly 12 times the significant swing days of Miami (19.8 per year) and 5.3 times those of Los Angeles (45.6). Its big-swing count of 137.1 is about 43 times Miami's 3.2. Compared with regional peers the differences are small — Boston runs 257.6 swing days, Philadelphia 231.7 — so relocating within the Northeast corridor changes little. A low-variability city such as San Diego (35.4 swing days, worst drop 0.50 inHg / 16.8 hPa) is a different pressure environment entirely. Pressure is only one of many factors people report, and individual responses vary widely.

Seasonal patterns

The seasonal split here is unusually stark. January produces 26.8 significant swing days, December 26.3, March 25.8, and February 25.4 — but July produces just 10.0 and August 10.3. Month-to-month variability tells the same story: standard deviation runs 0.29 inHg (9.7 hPa) in January and 0.28 inHg (9.53 hPa) in December, against 0.13 inHg (4.36 hPa) in July. Winter pressure varies more than twice as much as summer pressure. For four months of the year — June through September — New York's barometer behaves like a much calmer city's.

The driver is the cold-season storm track. Winter cyclones develop along the temperature contrast between the continent and the offshore waters, then deepen as they move up the coast, and New York sits directly under that corridor. In summer the Bermuda–Azores high spreads over the western Atlantic, flattening the pressure gradient and leaving long stretches of near-flat traces. Monthly means shift only modestly across the year — 29.94 inHg (1014.0 hPa) in June at the low end, 30.10 inHg (1019.3 hPa) in December at the high — so it is the variance, not the average, that changes with season.

The five deepest 24-hour drops in the ten-year record all occurred between December and mid-March: 1.41 inHg (47.6 hPa) ending January 10, 2024; 1.34 inHg (45.3 hPa) ending January 17, 2022; 1.32 inHg (44.6 hPa) ending March 14, 2017; 1.28 inHg (43.2 hPa) ending December 18, 2023; and 1.25 inHg (42.3 hPa) ending December 23, 2022. The steepest six-hour fall was 0.70 inHg (23.6 hPa). The record low is 28.82 inHg (975.8 hPa) on February 7, 2020, and the record high 30.98 inHg (1049.2 hPa) on December 14, 2024 — a full-record span of 2.17 inHg (73.4 hPa), both endpoints set in winter.

Month by month

Swing days: 24-hour change of at least 6 hPa (0.18 inHg). Drop days: 24-hour fall of at least 6 hPa. Averages per year, 2015–2024.

Records and extremes

Sharpest 24-hour drops, 2015–2024

Nearby cities

• Philadelphia, PA
• Baltimore, MD
• Boston, MA
• Washington, DC
• Virginia Beach, VA
• Cleveland, OH

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