Contact: Blaine P. Friedlander, Jr.
Office: (607) 255-3290
E-Mail: bpf2@cornell.edu
ITHACA, N.Y. -- It's official for 1996: The 12-state Northeast was sopping, soggy, soaked and sodden as the region sloshed its way to the wettest year in more than a century -- 102 years of official records -- with 53.89 inches of precipitation. This easily broke the old record set in 1972 by 2.55 inches, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University.
Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia -- half the 12-state region -- all set precipitation records. Maine and Rhode Island stood out as the two most-relatively dry states in the region for 1996: Rhode Island endured its ninth wettest year, and Maine endured its 12th wettest year.
Massachusetts, which normally gets 45.39 inches of precipitation in any given year, measured a whopping 60.98 inches to break a 13-year-old record, according to Keith Eggleston, regional climatologist at the Cornell-based center.
New Hampshire broke a 42-year-old record, while Pennsylvania and West Virginia each broke the precipitation records set 24 years ago -- 1972 -- when Hurricane Agnes shimmied along the Atlantic seaboard; it was the predominant weather event that year, and dumped extraordinary amounts of rain.
Despite being the wettest year on record, the Northeast set only one monthly precipitation record: July, when more than 6.5 inches of rain soaked the region, compared with a normal of 3.92 inches. For the Northeast: January was the fourth wettest; April and September were the sixth wettest; and December was the seventh wettest on record.
The Northeast got a reprieve in August, when only 2.81 inches of rain fell, compared with an average of 3.89 inches, making it the ninth driest August ever, according to Jeff Schultz, also a climatologist at the Northeast Regional Climate Center.
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January -December 1996 Previous Record
State 1996 Total Rank Normal Record Year of
Precip Precip Amount Occurrence
(1=wettest)
Connecticut 59.83 4 47.21 64.00 1983
Delaware 58.93 3 43.62 62.06 1948
Maine 49.93 12 41.21 58.35 1900
Maryland 58.44 1 42.76 57.79 1979
Massachusetts 60.98 1 45.39 59.78 1983
New Hampshire 54.39 1 41.88 54.38 1954
New Jersey 58.12 3 45.32 58.83 1975
New York 50.65 1 40.20 50.19 1977
Pennsylvania 54.70 1 41.39 51.81 1972
Rhode Island 53.32 9 46.20 63.71 1972
Vermont 49.69 5 40.13 57.01 1897
West Virginia 58.22 1 43.81 54.41 1972
Northeast Region 53.89 1 41.90 51.34 1972
All precipitation amounts are in inches. There are 102 years of record: 1895 through 1996. Normal is the average for the 30-year period 1961-1990
EDITORS: See chart attached.