NEW YORK — A robust storm system that contained a variety of weather hazards including heavy rain, strong winds and even some frozen precipitation barreled through the region Saturday.
It proved to be quite a super soaker and triggered flash flooding throughout the area. At one point, flood warnings stretched across northern New Jersey into all of New York City.
Record-breaking rainfall
The relentless deluge produced record amounts of rainfall for the date of March 23. Central Park shattered its old record of 1.60 inches by over 2 inches, recording 3.66 inches.
Every single one of our main climate sites broke records as well.
Regionwide, final rainfall totals averaged between 2-5 inches.
This latest round of drenching rain has pushed us into the sixth spot for wettest March ever. That’s on top of the year getting off to saturated start already.
As a result of these prolific rainfall totals, many of our flood prone rivers such as the Passaic, Raritan, and Saddle have been sent into flood stage. While some rivers will rise and fall relatively quickly, others like the Passaic and Housatonic will have much slower crests and recessions. This means that flooding along these rivers may last into early next week.
Remaining alerts and advisories
River Flood Warnings are in place along portions of the Passaic, Saddle, Millstone, Hudson, Still, Raritan and Housatonic Rivers through Tuesday.
A Wind Advisory is in place all counties except Sullivan, Ulster and Dutchess through 8 a.m. Sunday.
Looking ahead
After pummeling the area Saturday, that storm is now long gone.
It its wake, cold air has filtered back in, while gusty winds are lingering too. The winds will last into Sunday morning, with gusts up to 50 mph possible.
Saturday night’s windchills in the 10s and 20s can be blamed on the ongoing winds. Actual lows will dip into the 20s and 30s.
For Sunday, lots of sunshine will be in place, and while winds will not be as strong as they are overnight, they’ll still be strong enough to keep it feeling chilly. Highs should top out in the mid to upper 40s. Windchills will hover in the 30s.
- In:
- New York City