Where Did The Rain Go?
By Steve MacLaughlin on November 26, 2012, 5:31pm Last modified: November 27, 2012, 1:20am
Use your ← → (arrow) keys to browse more stories.
Last November, we were getting ready to wrap up a year with more rain than we knew what to do with...a year that also had an historic, record-setting winter. But it was about this time last year that things started to shift. We couldn't anticipate that we on the verge of a winter with barely any snow and rain. While most people didn't complain about the lack of snow, it did begin a long stretch of dry weather that led to a drought by the spring. Then, a few months back, the rain finally came and we were thrilled to see the U.S. Drought Monitor take all of Connecticut out of the drought.
But here we are on November 26th, and there has been almost no rain at all this month, and the deficit is once again starting to grow. Our one saving grace this month was actually the snow storm that brought a lot of moisture, even if it was frozen...parts of the state saw over a foot of snow.
Along the shoreline, and specifically in Bridgeport, November rainfall was only .79". A normal November should have 2.90" by this point. Last year we had 2.70" in the first 26 days of November. But the good news is that we saw a lot of rain in September and October...11.03" which is actually more than we usually get. And that really helped with our 2012 total so far...we are up to 36.24" which is only about 2" below average. If we had any significant rain in November, we'd be right back on track for the year. By the way, in 2011 we had 53.68" of rain through late November - 15" above average.
Meanwhile, up at Bradley Airport we have only seen .3" of rain for the entire month. We should see over 3" by this point in a normal November. Since September 1st there has been 8.87" compared to a normal total of 11.62". Last year we had twice as much rain by this point...19.03". For the year, we've had 33.79" of rain at BDL which is significantly short of the normal 41.89" through this point of the year. Last year, we had 53.68".
The one thing that is similar to last year is the fact that it's still not winter and we've already had a snowstorm. This year, Bridgeport got 8.3" of snow versus the 4" of snow from the 2011 Autumn Nor'Easter. Normally we should see about .5" for the season by this point. And this month's storm brought 2.5" of snow to Bradley Airport versus the 12.3" from October of 2011. Northern CT should normally average about 1.5" by this point.
Use your ← → (arrow) keys to browse more stories.
