Just Average Summer Rainfall Despite Deluges [AUDIO]

Some parts of the Garden State may get pounded with more heavy rains today, which could lead to more localized flash flooding.

However, even though it’s been raining a lot lately, this has hardly been a record-setting summer in Jersey.

State Climatologist at Rutgers University Dave Robinson says, “We simply didn’t have that much rain this summer- it was about average. And actually, the first 9 months of this year were the 16th driest on record. We had a very dry winter into mid-spring – and we’ve only been average since then – so this is not been a particularly wet year…While some areas have been pounded with drenching downpours, others have gotten virtually no rain at all. It all depends where you live in New Jersey when it comes to how much rain has fallen of late.”

He says the rain “has come in the typical torrents that we often see in summer, where 2 inches of rain may fall on one side of town – and the other side of town is dry…So overall, rain totals have actually been in the normal range this summer…There’s no unusual flood threat right now except in the localized areas that had recent heavy rainfall.”

Robinson adds while we have had a fair amount of precipitation lately that doesn’t mean it’s going to continue.

“Because there’s not a continuation or a memory in the system – to keep a pattern going – nor is there any magic formula that says well if you’ve been wet for a while you necessarily then have to be dry for a while. I wish there was a better way of looking into the future…Sometimes the rainfall finds you, sometimes it doesn’t…The bottom line is the ground water is in pretty good shape, and the reservoirs are in pretty good shape, so we don’t have any water resource worries.”