Maryland State Climatologist Office

Monitoring Extreme Temperatures and Precipitation in Maryland


This analysis identifies the occurrence of extreme events in temperature and precipitation, including growing degree days, from daily area-averaged temperatures and precipitation from the NCEI's nClimDiv-Daily data set, v1.0.0. The analysis is done at statewide, climate division and county levels for the identification of 1) Hot Days, defined as those whose daily maximum temperature is larger than 86°F; 2) Warm Days (summer days in the literature), defined as those whose daily maximum temperature is larger than 80°F; 3) Warm Nights (tropical nights in the literature), defined as those whose daily minimum temperature is larger than 68°F; 4) Freezing Days, defined as those whose daily minimum temperature is qual to or smaller than 32°F; 5) Moderate Freezing Days, defined as those whose daily minimum temperature is qual to or smaller than 28°F; 6) Severe Freezing Days, defined as those whose daily minimum temperature is qual to or smaller than 24°F; 7) Dry Spells, defined as those whose daily accumulated precipitation is lower than 0.04 inches for at least two consecutuve days; 8) Extreme Precipitation, defined as those whose daily accumulated precipitation is equal or larger than the 95 percentily of daily precipitation in the period 1951-2000; 9) Growing Season , defined as the period between the day after the last frost of spring and the day before the first frost of fall when the minimum air temperature is above the freezing point of 32°F; 10) Vegation Period, defined as the period between the first day of the first occurrence of a 6-day period with daily mean temperatures equal to or above 41°F and the day before the first occurrence of a 6-day period with daily mean temperatures below 41°F after the first of July (Tschurr et al., 2020); and 11) Accumulated Growing Degree Days. If the extreme conditions persist for two or more consecutive days they define a Heat Wave, a Warm-Day Spell, a Warm-Night Spell, a Freezing Spell, or a Dry Spell.

  • Current Year
    (2025)