Since this past June there have been 13 events that deposited at least 3.00" of rain at one or more locations the Garden State. Six of these events maxed out at greater than 5.00". Including the 13 listed below, there were 27 events from June through September 2 where an inch or more accumulated at one or more NJ locations.
With the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) releasing its latest outlook expecting an above-normal Atlantic hurricane season and with Sandy and Irene fresh in our memories, NJ residents may wonder what's in store for this tropical season.
These outlooks are quite general, but are based on some legitimate indicators. For example, there are those that correlate to an active season, such as warm sea surface temperatures or a wet west Africa, or the absence of things, such as shearing winds in the Atlantic from an El Nino event or dust in the atmosphere over the formative regions. More "suspect" are predictions of storm severity, though such numbers are just proportionately ramped up or down versus climatology based on the overall prediction. And of course, where the storms may develop and move is not something NOAA attempts to predict, at least not publicly. And with good reason, as the atmospheric steering currents vary from week to week, with no good means of predicting patterns well in advance.
While winter snow has almost accumulated to the seasonal average here in central New Jersey, time and time again it seems as if our area has been left short in the snow department. This atmospheric nickel and diming has included a number of times when areas to the south accumulated more snow, and occasions, as often expected, when locations to the north were the "winners".
