E-Paper
Month’s worth of rain in 3 hours: Numbers define ferocity of Friday rainfall in New York
Sudden flash floods in NYC break records, here's a look at the rainfall record numbers broken in one day.
Friday's sudden flash floods in New York City took many by surprise. It was the one for the record books, when it rained, it just rained and rained.
The flash floods triggered by unprecedented rainfall shut down entire subway lines, turned major roadways into lakes and forced Gov. Kathy Hochul to declare a state of emergency. Ms. Hochul called it a “life-threatening rainfall event,” and Mayor Eric Adams called the storm “something that we cannot take lightly and we are not taking lightly.”
Here are some of the records that Friday rain broke and some astounding amount of rain that shut the entire New York City.
Average rainfall in new York in the month of September is 4.3inches. But yesterday's numbers were far beyond-
However, Friday recorded wettest day in the history of New York City since 1948, with John F. Kennedy International Airport recording 8.5 inches of rain.
Hence, Friday's rain was double of average September rainfall in the area.
Central Park recorded its 6th wettest day on record since 1869 and wettest day since remnants of Hurricane Ida that flooded the city two years ago. Nearly 2 inches of rain fell in one hour in Central Park making it second-wettest hour there in 80 years. More than 5 inches of rain have fell there till evening.
Also Read: 'Turn around don't drown', New York City advised as flood threat remains
A month’s worth of rain, up to 4.5 inches, fell in only 3 hours on Friday morning in Brooklyn, with total number going up to 7.32 inches.
As reported by weather.com, some other top rainfall amounts from the area:
-9.06 inches in Valley Stream, New York
-5.03 inches near Greenwich, Connecticut
-4.12 inches in Ramsey, New Jersey
-3.48 inches in Hoboken, New Jersey
The record rain has made September 2023 the fourth-wettest month in New York history, behind August 2011, September 1882 and October 2005.
Floodwater impacted 150 of the city's 1,400 schools with pumps sent to at least 15 schools to remove water.
More than 23 million people were under flood advisories in the Northeast.
44 of the city's 3,500 buses became stranded and bus service was disrupted citywide
Flights into LaGuardia were briefly halted in the morning, and then delayed, because of water in the refueling area. Terminal resumed operations only post 8pm onwards.
