|
Northeast Regional Climate Center |
Temperatures for August 2004 averaged 0.6 degrees cooler than the 30-year mean. This was the Northeast's coolest August since 2000. Departures ranged from 1.8 degrees below normal in West Virginia to 0.7 degrees above normal in New Hampshire. In a month known for its Òdog daysÓ, daytime temperatures struggled to get into the 90's in the northern states, and only reached the mid 90's in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
August was the second month in a row that was quite wet. The region received an average of 5.48 inches of rain, which was 139% of the August normal. This was the wettest August since 1955 and the 6th wettest since records began in 1895. All states save West Virginia recorded precipitation totals above the long-term norm. New Jersey had the smallest positive departure, at 102% of normal, while Rhode Island pegged 173% of their normal rainfall for August. It was the 2nd wettest August in Vermont and the 5th wettest in New York.
Remnants of tropical storms and cold fronts pushing into unstable air masses produced the severe storms that led to above normal rainfall this month. On the 1st, heavy rains formed ahead of a cold front, causing extensive flood damage to parts of southeastern Pennsylvania, eastern Maryland, Delaware, and southern New Jersey. Homes and businesses were lost or damaged, transportation disrupted and hundreds were evacuated to shelters. Damage estimates were 30 million dollars in southeastern Pennsylvania alone. Another cold front began its pass through the region on the 11th, but stalled, becoming stationary on the 13th, when moisture from tropical depression Bonnie enhanced storms that formed in the unstable air mass. Flooding was reported in northern Maine (localized rainfall totals of 8-10 inches), northern and central Vermont, much of upstate New York, the eastern half of Pennsylvania and Delaware. A similar pattern set up at the end of August, this time Tropical Storm Gaston supplied the moist flow ahead of the cold front. Reports of flooding came in from Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont and New Hampshire.
Monthly Summary of State Temperature and Precipitation Averages.
The period from June 1 through August 31, 2004 was cool and wet in the Northeast. The regional average summer temperature was 1.1 degrees below normal. This was 1.4 degrees cooler than the 3-month average in 2003. Total precipitation this summer was 14.63 inches or 121% of normal, making the summer of 2004 the 7th wettest since 1895. Pennsylvania's summer total rainfall of 16.73 inches put it in the record books as the 3rd wettest in 110 years. Vermont and New York ranked 4th and 5th wettest, respectively.
Summer Summary of State Temperature and Precipitation Averages.
