Yes, downpours are getting heavier, and more frequent in RI. Here's the data.
PROVIDENCE – The rains were heavy across the region on Monday, from New York to Massachusetts and into New Hampshire.
Some of the highest totals were recorded in Rhode Island, with 3.74 inches at North Central State Airport in Lincoln, according to the National Weather Service.
It’s just the latest big rainstorm to hammer the state in recent years, coming after a Fourth of July storm that inundated parts of Providence this year, last year’s downpour on Labor Day that shut down Interstate 95, and a September 2021 event that left a neighborhood in Warren under a couple of feet of water.
Downpours are heavier, more frequent than before
Downpours have been on the rise in the Northeast in recent decades as the Earth has continued to warm. The increase is driven in part because warmer air can hold more moisture. The region saw a 55% increase in the number of the heaviest rainfall events between 1958 and 2016, according to the National Climate Assessment.
Since 1905, the average number of days per year in the Providence area with more than 1 inch of rain has increased from eight to 14, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University. Last year, there were 12 such days. This year, there have been 10 so far.
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The highest daily precipitation totals are also on the rise, increasing from 2.5 inches on average to 3.1 inches, according to the Cornell Center.
“Both of these findings correspond to what we are seeing and expect to see continue in the Northeast due to climate change,” said Jessica Spaccio, climatologist in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Science at Cornell. “Extreme precipitation is increasing both in frequency and intensity.”
It's already been a wet year for Rhode Island
This year has been rainier than usual in Rhode Island, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Total rainfall in the Providence area for the year so far reached 38 inches by the end of August, nearly eight inches more than normal, making it the sixth-wettest on record when compared to similar periods in previous years. About half the total has come during one-inch rainstorms.
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Other cities in the Northeast are faring similarly. The year to date has been the third-wettest on record in Albany, New York, Concord, New Hampshire and Worcester, Massachusetts and the fifth-wettest in Hartford, Connecticut.
Much of the rainfall in the Providence area has come in the last three months. The city and its surroundings have gotten more than 16 inches of rain since mid-June, compared to an average for the three-month period of 9.8 inches.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Flooding in RI: Climate change causing heavier downpours and flooding
