Repeat of 1982?
By Richard Sparago on June 9, 2012, 12:58pm
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WXEdge's Ralph Fato posted this morning that the GFS is calling for quite a wet week ahead, with a possible 9 inches of rain in CT. Amazingly, we had a very similar weather even exactly 30 years ago in Connecticut.
The weekend of June 4-7, 1982 saw up to 16 inches of rain in Southern New England, with average amounts in the 9-10 inch range. Most of this rain fell on June 5th, with parts of CT recording 10 inches of rain on that day. In 1982, a large low pressure system moved up from the Gulf coast and moved slowly up to the northeast, stalling on June 5, and proceeded to dump large amounts of water over Connecticut, and the rest of southern New England.
The result of this rainfall was many floods and flash floods, primarily in Connecticut. Record floods occurred on many smaller streams through the central part of the state. The larger rivers in Connecticut, the Housatonic and Connecticut, were not greatly impacted as their headwaters in the more northern parts of New England were not impacted by heavy rain. However, the smaller rivers - Yantic, Farmington, Shetucket - all received significant flooding as well as many smaller streams.
One significant development from the aftermath of this flooding was the development of a statewide flood warning system under the mangement of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. While this will not prevent flooding, it may help provide advance warning and prevent the loss of lives and property.
This year, a similar weather pattern may develop, with a stalled front leading the way for the development of a slow-moving soaker. As Ralph points out, this is just one model, and the forecast is subject to change. However, if we do end up with copious amounts of rain this week, our drought would be broken, as statewide deficits are in the 4-6 inch area.
Who says weather patterns aren't symmetrical?
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