A coastal storm unleashed a deluge of heavy rain on the New York City Tri-State area from late Thursday night into Friday night, leading to flash flooding, stranded motorists, street closures, subway suspensions and hundreds of flight delays and cancellations. Water rescues were reported in neighboring New Jersey.
AccuWeather reports that as the flash flood emergency unfolded, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a State of Emergency across New York City, Long Island and the Hudson Valley, posting on X (formerly known as Twitter), “Please take steps to stay safe and remember to never attempt to travel on flooded roads.”
As the heaviest rain ended Saturday morning, a total of 5.90 inches of rain had fallen at New York’s Central Park, including nearly 2 inches in an hour between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m. EDT Friday. There were also reports of more than 9 inches of rain in the Gowanus and Park Slope neighborhoods in Brooklyn.
“One thing I’ve learned in my almost 20 years at AccuWeather is that it’s not only the rain amount but it’s how quickly that rain is falling,” AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter said. “And when you start getting rain that’s coming down 1.5, 2, 3 inches per hour – that’s what we saw Friday, that’s what we warned about [Thursday] exclusively here [at AccuWeather]. That’s when you get big impacts because it’s just too much water for the sewer and storm water systems to keep up with.”
It has already been a wet month in New York City, and this storm put this month’s total rainfall in rare territory. Through 9 a.m. EDT on Saturday, more than 14 inches of rain had fallen in September, making this the second wettest September since records began in 1869. The wettest September stands at 16.85 inches of rain set back in 1882.
The daily rainfall record for Sept. 29 in the city was toppled as 5.48 inches of rain doused Central Park, with the old record of 2.17 inches from 1963 already broken before 10:00 a.m. EDT Friday. In fact, Sept. 29 became the wettest September day on record at John F. Kennedy International Airport as 8.05 inches of rain fell, the National Weather Service said, which kept records starting in 1948.
High pressure returning for the first week of October will bring a much-needed reprieve from rain, as sunshine and warm conditions will reign for the new week.
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