US: In mid-summer, New Yorkers tend to live outdoors. They sunbathe half-naked in Central Park, eat out at pavement cafes and rollerblade along sidewalks, writes Conor O'Clery in New York
But not this year. This will be remembered as the year when spring neglected New York and summer forgot to make a showing. It has rained on 28 of the last 50 days in the Big Apple. No one was surprised to learn yesterday that more rain has fallen over the city this month than in any June since records began in 1869 - and there is still a week to go. The new record of 10.15 inches is nearly half an inch more than that set in 1903.
It's been cold too. New Yorkers have not yet put away their winter leather jackets and overcoats. On the Hamptons at the weekend, mid-summer parties moved indoors around log fires as rain and chilling fog enveloped the deserted sands. All along the Atlantic seaboard, beach attendance has dropped 82 per cent this year.
A mood of depression has settled over the city. Even umbrella vendors are miserable, as they do their best business when people are caught out by a sudden shower, not when it rains so often that commuters take umbrellas to work every day.
Some New Yorkers talk about going to Ireland to get some sun, and they're not really joking. The reason for the misery, according to meteorologists, is a stalled jet stream dipping down over the eastern United States, bringing low pressure, cool temperatures and rain, with severe flooding in Florida. It's good news for the state's dams, which were dangerously low last year.
Yesterday the sun came out, but the forecast for next weekend is depressingly familiar - rain and more rain.