TRR photo by Ed Wesely (Click for larger image)

Late Summer Downpours. For August and September (so far), the big cloudbursts have occurred at the start of each month. An exception was August 29, when a violent thunderstorm produced over an inch of rain.

Here’s a brief summary of the action:

In August, total rainfall at my gage measured 6.20 inches, with 3.37 inches recorded from August 1 through August 6. With a couple of exceptions, the remaining weeks were sunny and dry until the 29th, when a late storm dropped another 1.28 inches.

But early September has almost surpassed the August total. Moist air, sucked from the Gulf of Mexico, has added 5.36 inches in the first five days. Over half fell in sheets in the early hours of September 2.

The grand tally from August 1 through September 8, as I write, is 11.56 inches of rain! A comparable period in 2002 produced 4.56 inches.

The Delaware River. September’s rain, and particularly one violent storm, produced dramatic effects in the Delaware River that are slowly moderating. (See my “Going Out” column).

The photograph above shows the Delaware River as it crested at the Damascus-Cochecton Bridge in late afternoon on September 4. A gage painted on the bridge abutment registered at the 12-foot-mark, which delineates flood stage in that part of the river.