Dear New York Times, We love your new look. Really, the re-design is visually appealing and easy to navigate. But. Gothamist also loves the weather, and when we took a look at the weather page yesterday we saw that it hasn't changed! What's the story? Is the weather not worthy of the new look? To paraphrase someone this makes us angrier than a rattlesnake at a Thai wedding. Come on, Times, get your weather page up-to-date.
The outdated Times page and everyone else is forecasting rain. Rain today, rain tonight, rain tomorrow. There may be a bit of clearing this afternoon. Temperatures may briefly shoot up into the 60s if the sun comes out. The rain returns tonight beforefading away Saturday night. Sunday morning starts off chilly but temperatures will climb into the mid-50s by the afternoon and mid-60s next week. Flowers should start blooming and trees will be putting out their leaves.
Severe Weather Awareness Week concludes today with a discussion of flooding, but first a correction. We mentioned on Wednesday that the most recent tornado to strike the city killed one person in Queens in 1995. Gothamist and OEM had our facts mixed up. The 1995 tornado hit Staten Island and did not kill anyone. The most recent city tornado also occurred on Staten Island but in 2003. Onto floods. Flash floods, caused by intense rains falling over a short period of time are the leading cause of death from thunderstorms across the country. The built infrastructure of the city can't handle much more than an inch of rain an hour. If it rains much faster than that, well, we all know what can happen. The Weather Service will issue a Flash Flood Watch when "it is possible rains will cause flash flooding in a specified area" and a Flash Flood Warning when "flash flooding is occurring or is imminent in a specified area". To prepare, know your flood areas and get ready to move to higher ground. For further information check with the Office of Emergency Management.
Current northeastern radar image from AccuWeather.com.
