Extreme Temperature Diary- Friday September 29th, 2023/Main Topic: New York City Drowns

guyonclimate_mi5tor

The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials)😉

Main Topic: New York City Drowns

Dear Diary. Climate change, as has been demonstrated time and time again by attribution studies, has enhanced rainfall events across the globe. Recently a medicane named Daniel brought devastating rains to Greece and Libya because of added Mediterranean heat that translated into extra atmospheric energy producing flooding rainfall.

Today it was New York City’s turn to experience the wrath of a system that brought flooding rain to Southeast New York State, at least partially due to record warm Atlantic waters. The system that brought the flooding was well forecast by meteorological models:

Although not as devastating as what happened across the Mediterranean area, today’s New York event should make everyone aware of the potential of further planetary warming, waking us all up from any peaceful dream that our environment is O.K. And the rainfall experienced by New York wasn’t even from an organized tropical system. By the way, since 2016 I’ve called for the naming of potential flooding events to better focus the public on these threats. It will be interesting to see attribution studies from this unnamed system:

Here are more details from the New York Times:

(2) Heavy Rain Brings Flash Floods to NYC: Latest Forecast and News – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Flooding in New York‘Life-Threatening Rainfall Event’ in New York as City Combats Flooding

Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency and urged people to stay off roads during what one official described as “the wettest day we’ve had since Hurricane Ida.”

Sept. 29, 2023, 2:04 p.m.

Michael Wilson and Hurubie Meko

More rain is expected throughout the afternoon. Here is the latest.

Heavy rainfall pounded New York City and the surrounding region on Friday, bringing flash floods, shutting down entire subway lines, turning major roadways into lakes and sending children to the upper floors of flooding schoolhouses. Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency, urging New Yorkers to stay home and singling out those who live in basements to brace for the worst.

Ms. Hochul, speaking at a news conference, described the storm as a “life-threatening rainfall event.” She was joined by Mayor Eric Adams, who warned New Yorkers: “This is a dangerous weather condition and it is not over.”

The National Weather Service issued a “considerable” flash-flood warning for Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens — a level of warning reserved for only extreme and rare rainfall events. The warning was extended several hours into Friday afternoon, with up to four more inches of rain possible. Additional warnings were in effect for the Bronx, Staten Island and Jersey City, N.J.

Cascading waterfalls all but shut down subway service in much of the city, with even major hubs like Barclays Center halting service during the morning rush. Trains were rerouted with little warning.

“I have no idea what’s happening,” one subway conductor said as her Q train moved onto the E line. “I don’t know where we’re going.”

Commuters ventured home on foot through scenes of chaos and upheaval.

Water gushed into brownstone basements in Park Slope. In Prospect Park, the landscape was altered by new creeks. The streets in Windsor Terrace, a neighborhood built on the slant of a hill, were engulfed in minutes in currents dotted with whitecaps, just as schools were opening their doors. Boys and girls slogged through deep water on 11th Avenue to reach their elementary school classes while neighbors with rakes tried to clear storm drains of dense fallen leaves.

“No children are in danger as far as we know,” the governor said.

Central Park was nearly empty, with waist-high flooding beneath otherwise picturesque arched bridges. A man in a drenched business suit leaned on a fence by the Great Lawn, and removed his boots one at a time to empty them of pools of water.

In Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, a large tree fell, pulling its roots up through a sidewalk and cleaving a parked Nissan.

On ABC, Ms. Hochul urged residents who live in flood zones to take extra precautions, two years after Hurricane Ida caused basement floods that killed 11 people in Queens. Many of the apartments, which are often rented to immigrants or others desperate for an affordable place to live, are not allowed to be rented legally and do not have adequate means of escape in a flood.

“Plan your escape route,” she said. “Don’t wait until water is over your knees before you leave. Don’t wait until it’s too late.”

As of 1 p.m, 5.43 inches of rain had fallen in Central Park since Thursday night, according to the weather service, 5.22 inches of it since midnight. Nearly half a foot of rain had already fallen in Brooklyn, forecasters with the weather service reported.

The rain on Friday followed days of rainfall earlier in the week. It is now the second-wettest September in New York City history, according to National Weather Service statistics: More than a foot of rain — 13.95 inches — has fallen this month, the most in more than 140 years, when the city logged 16.85 inches in September 1882.

The storm created havoc for the busiest streets and highways, flooding parts of the F.D.R. Drive and closing down the Belt Parkway. Many flights were canceled or delayed at Kennedy International Airport and La Guardia.

“This is a 20-hour event,” Ms. Hochul said on NBC around 10 a.m. “Twenty hours from now, this will still be an event.”

Claire Fahy, Mihir Zaveri, Jonah E. Bromwich, Emma Fitzsimmons, Luis Ferré-Sadurní, Judson Jones, Patrick McGeehan, Ginia Bellafante, Ana Ley, Andy Newman and Andrew Keh contributed reporting.

Sept. 29, 2023, 2:15 p.m.

Christine Chung

Flights were delayed or canceled at airports in the New York region.

Heavy rain and dangerous flash flooding delayed and canceled flights on Friday at La Guardia and Kennedy Airports, with the number of grounded flights also mounting at other airports in the Northeast. Wait times crept up to nearly an hour at Newark Liberty International Airport and Boston Logan International Airport.

At Kennedy, the average delay for outbound flights is more than three hours. And the extreme weather hasn’t just kept flights on the ground. At La Guardia, floodwaters began rising in Terminal A, forcing it to close. Terminal A handles, on average, fewer than 10 percent of La Guardia’s flights, said Amanda Kwan, a spokeswoman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the area’s airports.

The diminished operations at the area’s airports are not more pronounced then they would be on a typical stormy day, said Ian Petchenik, a spokesman for Flightradar24, a flight-tracking company. But this could change if flights are grounded for a prolonged period, he said.

The airspace in and around metro New York is the busiest and most complex in the country, according to the Port Authority. About 30 percent of flights in the United States pass through New York area airports at some point each day, Mr. Petchenik said.

Passengers can expect “rippling impact and cancellations through the rest of today,” said Michael McCormick, a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and a former control tower operator for the Federal Aviation Administration.

“The adage is, the way New York goes, so does the system,” he added.

Much More:

(2) Heavy Rain Brings Flash Floods to NYC: Latest Forecast and News – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Here are some other “ET’s” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:

Here is more climate and weather news from Friday:

(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)

Today’s News on Sustainable, Traditional Polluting Energy from Fossil Fuel, and the Green Revolution:

More from the Weather Department:

More on the Environment:

More on Other Science and the Beauty of Earth and this Universe:

If you like these posts and my work on record temperature ratios, please contribute via my PayPal widget on this site. Thanks in advance for any support. 

Guy Walton… “The Climate Guy”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *