question

[Bill O]

I'm talking about the entire 75 year record that the Obs has, if that answers your question.

Just using estimates I bet I can get pretty close. Normal daily temperature is 27.2F. Although that is the 30 year average.

So 65-27.2 = 37.8 per day x 365 days x 75 = 1.034 million

Now there were a few leap years in there, and I'm also guessing the 75 year average is a little colder than the 30 year average. A million is a good number though.

[Brad]

Heating oil companies use heating degree days to calculate when you need your tanks filled.

[Steve M]

According to what I have found, the average heating degree days per year for MW is 14015. So if you multiply that by 75 you get 1,051,125.00. So, Bills estimation is very close. Again, these are averages. The data covers from 1961 - 1990.

http://met-www.cit.cornell.edu/ccd/nrmhdd.html