I have blogged about aerial wildland firefighting since 2009. I am not a firefighter and am not a pilot, just an interested bystander who wants to learn more and share what I learn here. Join me here as I blog on the aircraft and the pilots who fight wildland fires from the air in support of crews on the ground. I also blog on concerns affecting fire crews on the ground as well as other aviation and meteorology issues. Learn what it takes to do jobs that are staffed by the best of the best.
CAL FIRE (CDF) S2T Tanker 71 working Sawtooth Complex Fire (2006)
Sawtooth Complex Fire (Sept. 2006), San Bernardino County CA. Photo Credit: U.S. Forest Service
Showing posts with label floods - Northeast 2010. Show all posts
Showing posts with label floods - Northeast 2010. Show all posts
The worst of the heavy rain has finally left most of the mid-atlantic region heading for New England as I write this. Earlier this morning there was major flooding in NYC and NJ as reported by myfoxny.
I was checking out myfoxphilly a short time ago. I knew that they had significant rainfall yesterday later in the morning and through the afternoon when much of NJ was seeing little rainfall, I wanted to see how they made out. In my corner of NJ, we had a couple of hours of heavy rain that ended before 8AM yesterday morning, seeing light rain for the rest of day into the evening. After these bands passed through NJ yesterday morning, eastern PA continued to see heavy rainfall from late morning and into the afternoon or early evening. Our bands of rain in NJ came through sometime between 2 and 5 AM this morning, possibly hitting eastern PA first.
I am again taking a break from posting about aerial wildland firefighting to report on the ongoing flooding concerns here in NJ. I have written about flooding in Little Falls NJ here and here. I want to say at this juncture that there are other Rivers in New Jersey that are flooding, for example the Millstone at Blackwell Mills, the Wanaque River at Pompton Plains, the Passaic River at Pine Brook (not far from Little Falls), and the Assunpick Creek in Trenton to name a few. Since I have written about the flooding at Little Falls on two prior occasions, I will follow up with the flooding of the Passaic River at Little Falls (the subject of the video that I embedded).
Forecasts today call for the Passaic to crest at Little Falls at about 8.2 feet (moderate flooding) late in the day tomorrow Wednesday. If this forecast holds, this will be over three feet lower than the flooding of a couple of weeks ago (11.76 feet -- major flooding).
The New Jersey Forest Fire Service (NJFFS) is providing assistance to two communities affected by today's floods, Little Falls and Fairfield, see this report for more information. As I understand it, these communities requested the assistance of the NJFFS sometime yesterday to aid local officials in working the floods. The report I linked to provides an update on how the flood is affecting New Jersey. Earlier reports, posted New Jersey's current round of flooding may be found here and here. All these reports were posted to the hotlist forums at wildland fire. Thank-you to the NJFFS for helping out with the flooding.
Those of you who are interested in following along on the status of flooding in New Jersey may want to see this page, from the Advanced Hydrological Prediction Service of the Mt. Holly Office of the National Weather Service.
While I am at it, flooding is affecting other areas of the Northeastern United States including but not limited to Long Island NY, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.
Last Tuesday I wrote about new flood warnings for the Passaic River in Little Falls NJ, one of the areas in NJ that saw bad flooding after the nor'ester on March 13. The River crested below forcast levels and is now below flood stage at Little Falls.
While flood waters have receded, lets not forget that people in Little Falls, Bound Brook, Wayne and elsewhere in NJ will be cleaning up after these floods for awhile yet. As will folk in New England and South Dakota.
One of the areas in New Jersey that saw flooding last week is Little Falls, along the Passaic River.
The map above, obtained from this NWS webpage shows the location of the river gauge (the red dot). If you go to that webpage, you will also see a graph of river levels for the current seven day period. The graph shows recent, current and forecast levels of the Passaic River at Little Falls. Today's graph, shown below, shows that the current level is just above flood stage. The river is expected to crest sometime in the period from late afternoon Wednesday (3/24) into Thursday (3/25). Now, I got a graph (not shown here) last week showing that the River was at 11.76 feet on Tuesday, March 16. Still, this weeks flooding will only exacerbate the situation.
I would be remiss to leave out Massachusetts. The nor'easter has hung around Massachusetts and eastern Rhode Island since late Saturday night. Some areas have eight inches of rain. Those of you interested in some media coverage, may want to go here or here.
See this public information statement from the Boston MA office of the National Weather Service:
PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
SPOTTER REPORTS
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA
656 PM EDT MON MAR 15 2010
THE FOLLOWING ARE UNOFFICIAL OBSERVATIONS TAKEN FOR THE STORM THAT
HAS BEEN AFFECTING OUR REGION. THESE ARE THE MOST RECENT STORM
TOTAL REPORTS THAT WE HAVE RECEIVED. APPRECIATION IS EXTENDED TO
HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTS...COOPERATIVE OBSERVERS...SKYWARN SPOTTERS AND
MEDIA FOR THESE REPORTS. THIS SUMMARY IS ALSO AVAILABLE ON OUR HOME
PAGE AT WEATHER.GOV/BOSTON
********************STORM TOTAL RAINFALL********************
LOCATION STORM TOTAL TIME/DATE COMMENTS
RAINFALL OF
(INCHES) MEASUREMENT
...WINDHAM COUNTY...
WILLIMANTIC 2.61 552 PM 3/15 ASOS
MASSACHUSETTS
...BARNSTABLE COUNTY...
HYANNIS 2.70 551 PM 3/15 ASOS
...BRISTOL COUNTY...
TAUNTON 5.84 554 PM 3/15 NWS OFFICE
RAYNHAM 5.10 911 AM 3/15 AMATEUR RADIO EAST RAY
ACUSHNET 5.08 1016 AM 3/15
NEW BEDFORD 4.56 549 PM 3/15 ASOS
Another town that often gets hit hard with floods is Bound Brook, NJ. The Raritan River passes through town as does two of its tributaries, the Middle Brook and Green Brook.
I am sure that most of you have heard about the Nor'easter that hit NJ, NY, and CT this past Saturday before working its way up to New England. As a resident of NJ, I offer you these videos. The one above is talking about flooding in Wayne, NJ. Wayne is an area that is often hard hit by floods.
