The precipitation onslaught began on the 1st when heavy localized storms brought 1.37" to Franklin Township and 1.24" to Mantua Township, both in Gloucester County, with some flash flooding observed. Thunderstorms were found amidst each event. There were thirteen events in August that deposited at least 0.99" at one or more locations. Comparison of August 2011 precipitation with prior record-wet months (for any calendar month) at selected NJ stations with lengthy records. Only stations in the southeast failed to exceed a monthly record. Table 4 shows four of these stations, including two with observations back to 1893. Record precipitation for any month was observed at a number of stations across NJ. In some counties there is only one station with few enough missing data to be considered to have complete or near-complete observations for August, as other stations in the county have an inadequate number of reports (IA) for a complete evaluation. Asterisk denotes incomplete reports, with one or more days missing where some minor amounts of precipitation may have fallen. The wettest and driest CoCoRaHS and NWS Coop stations in each NJ county during August 2011. Clearly, no location was immune from excessive rain totals. Figure 1 shows the distribution of August precipitation across NJ. The 7.80" in Little Egg Harbor Township (Ocean) was the lowest monthly total in NJ. Six other counties had maximums between 19.00-19.99" and only Ocean and Cape May counties had a station minimum under 10". County maximums were at least 15.43" (Cape May) and the top stations in Cumberland, Gloucester, Middlesex, and Monmouth counties were over 20.00". Table 3 breaks down the monthly precipitation totals by county, with the highest and lowest values presented. The ten wettest CoCoRaHS locations in NJ during August 2011. Table 1 shows the ten wettest Augusts, with the 1955 record associated with hurricanes Connie and Diane now sitting at #2 for August and #3 for any month. Or any calendar month for that matter, as it far surpasses the previous record of 11.98" in October 2005. This staggering figure is 12.43" above the 1981-2010 average and is by a wide margin the wettest August on record. The preliminary estimate of statewide August precipitation is 16.64". The last day of the month saw Berkeley Township (Ocean) reach 49°. ![]() Pequest was 49° on the 24th, 47° on the 29th, when Walpack dropped to 49°, and 48° on the 30th. The 23rd saw Pequest drop to 46°, Walpack to 48° and four other stations to 49°, making this the coolest morning of the month. On the 12th it was 47° at Pequest (Warren) and Walpack (Sussex), and 48° in Basking Ridge (Somerset). ![]() On six August mornings at least one NJ station fell into the 40°s. Atlantic City Marina (Atlantic) got to 93° on the 8th, when six other stations reached 92°. The 7th saw Hammonton (Atlantic) hit 93° and both Egg Harbor Township (Atlantic) and Hawthorne (Passaic) at 92°. The warmest day was the 1st when New Brunswick (Middlesex County) topped out at 97° and five other stations reached 95°. On four afternoons the high temperature equaled or exceeded 90° at one of the approximately 60 stations the Office of the New Jersey State Climatologist monitors across the state. ![]() The monthly average of 74.1° ties with 19 as the 28th warmest of the past 117 years. With the addition of Irene's rainfall, the previous record for any calendar month back to 1895 was shattered by almost 5".īefore discussing the month's storms, let's take a look at August's temperatures. In fact, prior to a drop of rain from Irene, enough precipitation had fallen to rank this as the state's 6th wettest August since 1895. Others will remember severe local flash flooding associated with several massive rainstorms earlier in the month. Irene necessitated the largest coastal evacuation in state history, record flooding on a number of rivers, power outages for almost one million customers, and tragically the loss of life of at least a dozen NJ residents. For most residents, the most memorable event of the month was Tropical Storm Irene (upon further examination by the National Hurricane Center, Irene has been reclassified as a tropical storm prior to making land fall in New Jersey). ![]() Center for Environmental Prediction, School of Environmental and BiologicalĪugust 2011 will go down in New Jersey's weather annals as one of the most remarkable months on record.
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