FOX44 - Burlington / Plattsburgh News, Weather & Sports10.02.11 R-A-I-N It's What 2011 Is

10.02.11 R-A-I-N It's What 2011 Is

Burlington, Vermont is about five and a half inches away from another record.  This time it's a big one.  The record of many records:  Wettest Year!

More than an inch of rain has fallen across the Champlain Valley this weekend (once again) and the numbers keep adding up.  Meteorologist Kerrin Jeromin just wrote a blog about it Friday, but we're now in the 5th-wettest year on record at BTV.

Here at our Colchester, Vermont studios, we picked up about 1.25" of rain during the weekend.  This map above only shows the rain on Saturday.  It was a widespread half inch to 1.25".  Some places got another half inch Sunday, but only the northern sections.

If we keep pace we will beat the all-time wettest record by a long shot.  As it stands right now, the average rain in October, November, and December is 8.44".  If we get that 'average' number from now through the end of the year, we'd end up with about 53 inches.  But the way this year is going, we'll probably get more (hope I'm wrong!).

Burlington is one of the lowest elevations where we get precipitation data from.  Generally the higher in elevation, the more rain (or snow) a location will get.  So imagine if the Champlain Valley has already gotten three and a half feet or rain this year, the mountains must have gotten much more!

For the past year, the large-scale pattern has been a La Nina.  It is characterized by cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures over the Pacific Ocean.  This has given the Northeast a very wet winter in 2010-2011, and a wet Spring, Summer, and Fall so far as well. 

Looking back to last year at this time, you can see (below) that the precipitation gauge has had a busy year.

The green-shaded area on the top image is the difference between actual versus average.  It's a surplus of rain and snow that Burlington has received. You can see that right off the start, BTV had a wet winter, and the following days, weeks, and months have been following the pattern.  In fact, the green shaded area seems to keep getting bigger as that rain differential increases.  The bottom image shows the big storms we've gotten.  The big snow storm can be seen in March (liquid equivalent).  The record-setting April and May are below.  A short and dry period in August has been followed by Irene and a wet September as well, seen by the spikes on the graph.  In the last year, we've had +21.0" compared to average.  La Nina still exists, and wet weather is expected to continue.

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