There have now been 4 days with at least 1" of rain from midnight to midnight this year. No other year has seen more than 3 days with 1"+ of precipitation on a calendar day. Since 1915, a total of 48 days have exceeded 1" of precipitation.
If we drop the threshold down to 0.75", there have been 9 days in 2014. The next highest year is 1962 with 6 days at or above 0.75".
If you take the ten wettest days of 2014, it adds up (10.59") to just a shade under the normal annual precipitation total. No other year has seen as much as 9" when the 10 wettest days are added together.
Figure 1. Precipitation from Mesowest of the 24-hour period ending at 9:45 a.m. on September 2nd.
Some Interior Alaskan hydrology: http://aprfc.arh.noaa.gov/index_rivs.php
ReplyDeleteNote the River Forecasts versus Observed Precipitation from this recent event. Outdoors campers and harvesters should pay attention.
Gary
Remarkable indeed! Looking at 2-day totals, this is the 8th greatest non-overlapping event on record (1930-present) for any time of year.
ReplyDeleteFairbanks is now very close indeed to the wettest year on record through the current date: 1962 had 15.05" through September 2, compared to 14.96" this year.
If precipitation is perfectly normal for the rest of the year, then 2014 will end as the 2nd wettest on record. It would require 3.57" more to break the annual record, and this now seems doable: 24 of 84 years (1930-2013) have had this much precipitation from September 3 through the end of the year, including both 2010 and last year.
The CPC offers this projection. Looks like more moisture for a few weeks.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/partnerships/alaska.php
Gary