bluewave

Congrats!

September 2017 was another top 10 warmest month around the area. EWR...10...LGA...8...JFK...7...BDR...8...ISP...4

Record shattering 2016-2017 water year ends today, with the Northern Sierra 8 Station Index more than 6" higher than previous record! #cawxpic.twitter.com/uTyyJ333Tw 12:55 PM - 30 Sep 2017

Jose provided some great swells for the surfers in Lido Beach.

The last time we had a decent wet pattern here in September was way back in 2011. Pretty impressive dry streak the last several Septembers. The lack of major summer heat in places like Long Island prevented the dry conditions from getting worse than they were this summer. But NNJ did much better in the rainfall dept than Long Island this summer.

Dry conditions expanded west into NY and PA in the latest US drought monitor update yesterday. http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Maps/CompareTwoWeeks.aspx Northeast Another week of mostly dry weather, accompanied by late-season warmth, led to the introduction of abnormal dryness (D0) in several areas. In addition, moderate drought (D1) persisted in eastern Maine, while dryness was expanded to include the remainder of coastal New England. By September 24, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that topsoil moisture was 77% very short to short in Maine, along with 46% in Vermont and 40% in West Virginia. Through September 26, month-to-date rainfall totaled just 1.04 inches (33% of normal) in Elkins, West Virginia, and 0.77 inch (24%) in Massena, New York.

We got really lucky with Gloria. There was an 8-9 foot storm surge along the LI South Shore which hit right near low tide. The actual tide levels were similar to Irene which had a 4-5 surge at high tide. The biggest story with Gloria was the power outages with some shoreline apartments and houses getting their roofs blown off in Suffolk.

Amazing how fast #Maria deteriorated now that it has crossed 30N into #Jose's cold wake pic.twitter.com/bgqm5uwLqz 5:41 AM - 25 Sep 2017

Dozens of water rescues at Long Beach yesterday with this combination of summer in late September and the strong rip currents. http://www.fios1news.com/longisland/Dozens rescued from Long Beach waters after getting caught in rip currents #.WcjxaihM4lI There were dozens of water rescues at the beach in Long Beach on Sunday despite warnings about rough waters and rip currents. “It's the rip current from the hurricane that are out in the ocean, and the people should not be in the water when the lifeguards are not on duty,” Assistant Chief Long Beach Fire Department Rick Digiacomo said. Though lifeguards were not on duty since it is after Labor Day, many of them were at the beach to help Long Beach Fire Department with rescues. While the water was good for surfers, many said the waters were dangerous for the average swimmer. “There’s a lot of undertow. These are hurricane waves, needless to say, they are very unassuming because it looks calm. But in actuality, there’s a tremendous pull on the water, you can get crushed in the water as we saw,” said Theodore Sampieri of St. James. Long Beach fire officials say it’s best for all to stay out of the water when there are no lifeguards on duty.

It's the combination of wind damage and flash flooding that makes this a really difficult recovery for Puerto Rico.

Even with the strongest summer polar vortex pattern since at least 2006, NSIDC extent still finished 8th lowest. Our most favorable years now for sea ice retention are still significantly lower than the most hostile years pre 2005.

The NWS in San Juan just put out a chart showing the deluge there. https://mobile.twitter.com/NWSSanJuan/status/910983698597777409/photo/1

Yeah, the short term rainfall rate for Maria was off the charts. That 1970 event happened over 6 days. http://www.floodsafety.noaa.gov/states/pr-flood.shtml Another case of a slow moving tropical depression, resulting in rainfall over multiple days across the island, set the stage for the devastating floods of October 1970. The focus of the rainfall core shifted from day to day, but some areas experienced copious amounts of rainfall on consecutive days, causing rainfall amounts that could be measured in feet. The highest total over those 6 days was 38.42 inches at Jayuya and 41.68 inches at a station near Jayuya. Jayuya had a 24 hour total of 17 inches.

You have to wonder if that 37.9" rainfall at Caguas is a new record for 24-36 hrs in Puerto Rico. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/pr/nwis/uv/?site_no=50999961&PARAmeter_cd=00045

Congrats!

It's a 40 mile punchhole type eye following the disruption going over Puerto Rico yesterday. Although the large, 40 n mi diameter, eye of the hurricane is still a little ragged-looking, it is gradually becoming better defined, and a ring of cold cloud tops is intensifying around the eye.

That is one of the biggest eyes in the Atlantic since Isabel.

The coolest part of the 12z Euro run is when Maria absorbs a leftover lobe of Jose vorticity just like Jose did with Irma last week.

Unfortunately, the aerial views look like Homestead after Andrew. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/dominica-pictures-show-total-destruction-after-hurricane-maria-n802931

In Guayama, on Puerto Rico's southern coast, video clips posted on social media showed a street turned into a river of muddy floodwaters. In the community of Juan Matos, located in Cataño, west of San Juan, 80 percent of the structures were destroyed, the mayor of Cataño told El Nuevo Dia, and half of the municipal employees lost their homes. "The area is completely flooded. Water got into the houses. The houses have no roof. Most of them are made of wood and zinc, and electric poles fell on them," the mayor told the publication. In the capital of San Juan, buildings shook and glass windows shattered from the force of the storm. Residents of some high-rise apartments sought refuge in bathrooms and first-floor lobbies, but even those who sought out safe ground found themselves vulnerable. Buildings that meet the island's newer construction codes, established around 2011, should be able to weather the winds, Rosselló said. But wooden homes in flood-prone areas "have no chance," he predicted. Macarena Gil Gandia, a resident of Hato Rey, a business district in San Juan, helped her mother clean out water that had started flooding the kitchen of her second-floor apartment at dawn. "There are sounds coming from all sides," Gil Gandia said in a text message. "The building is moving! And we're only on the second floor, imagine the rest!" Parts of Hato Rey were underwater. An electric gate for her building in the neighborhood was blown off, Gil Gandia said. In the lobby of Ciqala Luxury Home Suites in Miramar, a neighborhood in San Juan, Maria Gil de Lamadrid waited with her husband in the lobby as the rain and wind pounded on the hotel's facade. The door of the hotel's parking garage flopped violently in the wind. The sounds of the storm were so loud that it was hard for hotel guests to hear each other speak. Gil de Lamadrid spent the night in the hotel after evacuating her nearby 16th floor waterfront apartment, which has been prone to flooding during previous hurricanes. But even in a luxury hotel room, Gil de Lamadrid could not evade flooding; on Wednesday morning, inches of water began to seep into her hotel room through the balcony doors. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/09/20/hurricane-maria-takes-aim-at-puerto-rico-with-force-not-seen-in-modern-history/?utm_term=.13ca24280b97

Gusting to 112 mph at Arecibo with the surge coming up. https://tidesonline.nos.noaa.gov/

Getting some photos now from the Olive Boutique hotel in San Juan. https://mobile.twitter.com/briggsoto/status/910473832359657472?p=v

Several rivers are already near record flood stage.

The 113 mph gust was the last report out of San Juan. A sustained wind of 64 mph (104 km/h) with a gust to 113 mph (182 km/h) was recently reported at San Juan, Puerto Rico.