LibertyBell

uhm the meteorologists have been saying for YEARS that this was coming and it's because of climate change

It was mentioned that similar warnings were made in Germany and somehow they didn't get properly communicated either. Seems like these historic floods have been occurring worldwide this summer....

But then to play devil's advocate Don, why is the west drying out while the east is getting wetter? What is driving the discrepancy and as the world warms up even more will the moisture make it all the way to the west coast and will they start getting excessive rainfall eventually too?

I've been saying this for awhile! Which is why climate change is a much more appropriate term than global warming.

Those are some excellent questions, my friend! I suspect we could make good use of the salt and other minerals in the water. I think we would have to use a lot of water, maybe more than we would currently be capable of to reduce ocean levels by a lot, but you never know, we already use more resources than the planet is capable of replenishing (we passed that point in the 70s, right now we are using the resources of 1.7 earths, meaning we are spending more than we have the resources to buy.....)

dude that curse was broken with the 2002-03 winter lol

It dried out as it came east lol

Happened on Long Island in October 2005 (two feet of rain)

Going into the 50s the next two nights even in the city YAY

Highest rainfall rate was 5" per HR

7 Tornadoes...... 4 in PA 3 in NJ...... EF3 in Mullica Hills, NJ..... 150 MPH

No I meant in the month of February.....haven't seen that in a long time.

I know 1903 was a hurricane that curved into ACY like Sandy did but what happened in 1882 and 1977? 1944 was extremely impressive too, big hurricane hit.

Hey I mentioned August 2011

50s were crazy however the magnitude of 3"+ events and how much more frequent they are is whats the difference.

also Labor Day 1998 we had an F2 tornado here! I would also argue for November 1989 which was a horrendous severe weather event. States of emergency in PA, NJ and NY, this was definitely not localized.

I mean we did have the giant 30+ inch snowstorm in Jan 2016. What an extreme winter that was, from record warm December to that snow bomb to below zero in February for the first time since the 40s.

Yep October 2005 events were stretched out over a few weeks. We almost beat the September 1882 monthly record (did on LI where up to 2 feet of rainfall happened), the monthly record was eventually set in August 2011....don't forget about the big rainfall event that month prior to Irene. That maxed out here (10" in 12 hours), also I don't know how your area did in August 2014 when Islip got the state record with 14" in less than 3 hours.

April 2007 was ranked second in NYC behind Sept 1882. We never seem to be able to top that 24 hr record from Sept 1882 no matter how frequent these extreme events seem to be getting. Oh well, maybe next time?

Yes it makes it much more efficient to communicate to the public with. Keep both and use them both differently. Nothing wrong with describing a historic event like this in a multitude of ways.

The question is are they happening more frequently now? Well, to answer that in a different way, our average precip seems to be going way up if you compare 30 year precip norms now vs let's say a few decades ago. I hate it. There is nothing I dislike more than sticky, muggy tropical humid weather lol.

Yes, we've had three of these so far this season already. All rain events. Had 2 last year. But one of those more of a wind event than a rain event (Isaias). Depends on what side of the storm you're on. Isaias last year had a very Sandy-like feel (in terms of wind, not surge of course) and was relatively dry here on the eastern side. Did see reports of tornadoes on the Jersey shore. Nothing like the two EF3 we have had this summer though.

I have a prime example of another event like that which was about 80 miles further east.....I don't know if you can obtain the precip maps to this one but if you can, look up the Islip deluge from August 2014. Very comparable in terms of max rainfall but it was shifted 80 miles to the east. Close to 14 inches of rain in 3 hours. The standing state record. There's also the August 2011 extreme rainfall event (pre Irene), that was centered 25 miles east of the city (in my area), 10 inches of rain in less than 6 hours.

None lol. I'm saying we need to develop one like this, it would be similar to the Modified Mercalli scale for earthquakes (vs the Richter scale.) The relative classes would signify how extreme (and rare) something is vs the worst that could happen (reasonably) and has to also take into account the physical size of the area impacted.

If you had to bet, have we seen the last of the 90s? For NYC and JFK at least?