2011: A Record Rainfall Odyssey for Northeast

UPDATE 1/10/2012: The following major cities have their official record breaking NWS statements linked: Binghampton, NY | Scranton, PA | Harrisburg, PA | Williamsport, PA | Cleveland, OH | Philadelphia, PA | Newark, NJ. Albany did NOT beat their record.

ORIGINAL REPORT: With little precipitation left to fall this year, we wrap up 2011 as a record rainfall year for parts of the Midwest and Northeast. Below is a map showing the fourteen states (!) that are more than 20 inches over normal, along with some annotation of percentages for major cities.

Although Chicago got "only" 135%, or 39 inches of rain this year, that ended up to be the second wettest year on record (precipitation varies more in the East where major, wet (even tropical) storms abound). In Ohio, they broke the record highest amount of precipitation ever in the state (a record previously held by the year 1870!)

For information on other cities, read our news story "List of Cities Breaking Yearly Rain Records Grows", or download the detailed maps that I used from our Pro site. (data from Dec. 28th from AccuWeather's climate database; may not exactly match NWS records).

For the search engines, here's the list from the graphic, sorted by Percentage:

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: 74" (183%).
Cincinnati, Ohio: 73" (174%).
Cleveland, Ohio: 65" (168%).
Cape Girardeau, Missouri: 78" (164%).
Montgomery, New York: 73" (164%).
Mt. Pocono, Pennsylvania: 79" (164%).