How about a bit of Irene weather trivia to end the month? It was little noted but a post-storm analysis by the National Weather Service confirmed that a weak tornado touched down in Cunningham Park in Queens during the height of the storm. The tornado's peak wind speed was estimated to be 85 mph. Rainfall across the city averaged roughly six inches. Do you know how many gallons that is?
The land area of the city is 305 square miles; multiply the two together and do a bunch of conversions it works out to approximately 32 billion gallons of water! Finally, the 6.87 inches of rain that was measured at Central Park pushed the monthly total to 18.95 inches, smashing the old August record by more than six inches. Not only is this the rainiest August, it also topped September 1882's rainfall of 16.85 inches to become, by far, the wettest month ever recorded in the city.
High pressure is still in place so August will end and September will begin on a dry note. At best we'll see a smattering of clouds tonight and tomorrow, but nothing to greatly interfere with the mostly sunny skies. Today will be in the mid 80s with only a slight cooling tomorrow. As the high moves offshore we'll get an ocean breeze on Friday that will keep the high in the 70s.
Saturday looks like it will be the best weather day of the long weekend. A cold front is expected to arrive later in the weekend, bringing at least a chance of showers and thunderstorms late Saturday but more likely Sunday and Monday. The mild weather should continue with daytime highs in the low 80s, except right along the shore where it will be cooler. As of now there's no need to worry about soon-to-be Hurricane Katia affecting the region.
