New York City crushes 2-week-old rainfall record and Newark gets downpour expected every 200-500 years

New York City's Central Park got a record 1.94 inches of rain in one hour on Aug. 21, as Tropical Storm Henri doused the city. On Wednesday night, between 8:51 p.m. and 9:51 p.m., 3.15 inches of rain fell on Central Park. Another weather station in Manhattan recorded 3.76 inches of rain in one hour, as Tropical Depression Ida dumped so much water on the area that the National Weather Service issued its first-ever flash flood emergency for New York City.

Across the Hudson River in New Jersey, more than 7.2 inches of rain fell on Newark, easily breaking a record set in 1977, according to Fox Weather meteorologist Greg Diamond.

During Newark's daily deluge record, "it received 3.24 inches of rain in one hour," The Washington Post recounts. "That one-hour rainfall, its most on record, is expected to occur only once every 200 to 500 years."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

Over a three-hour span Wednesday night, 6.42 inches of rain fell at Newark International Airport, meteorologist Alex Lamers noted on Twitter. "That's basically the equivalent of about 7 weeks of average rainfall falling in a few hours."