Have you ever wondered what the weather was on a certain day in a certain place? I’m working on a time-travel novel where certain events happen on certain dates in the past. And given how easy it is to find information online, it seems reasonable to at least make sure that a day that was rainy in the story also had some rain in our timeline!

I like to use the NOAA website, though the interface isn’t totally intuitive. I got what I needed by clicking on “Data Tools,” then “Find a Station,” and then putting in the city and date range. Then, I selected the station on the map and clicked on “Full Details.”

For historical weather for New York CIty, Central Park’s data is here. At first, it looks like you have to “ADD TO CART” (whatever that would entail). But you can scroll down and enter a period to see the basic data, though you have to re-enter the month and year even if you already entered a date on an earlier screen. For 1912, at least, it shows the high and low temperatures and the amount of rain or snow.

You might think the best source for detailed weather would be historic newspapers. But page 19 of the New York Sun from April 19, 1912 doesn’t actually report the measured rainfall! Though I suppose “rainy and colder” is about as good of a description as the 0.55″ in Central Park mentioned in the NOAA site.

(Why April 19, 1912? Well, that’s the day after the Carpathia came to New York, bringing the Titanic‘s survivors. What a miserable day for so many people who lost someone…)