Boxing Day Storm Punches Out East Coast Rainfall Records

Images (click to enlarge): New daily precipitation records, December 26-27, 2012, CapitalClimate chart from NWS data; 24-hour precipitation ending 7 am EST, December 27, 2012, from NWS

The strong storm which moved up the East Coast on December 26-27 brought record rainfall amounts from North Carolina to Connecticut. National Climatic Data Center reports show 196 daily precipitation records broken and 7 tied for a total of 203 across the U.S. on the day after Christmas. Among major National Weather Service (NWS) reporting locations, the following list shows the new daily record precipitation amounts and the previous records. (Except for Bridgeport and Islip, all of the records were set on December 26.) The oldest record broken was from 1873 at Wilmington NC. The previous records were set just 3 years ago at Cape Hatteras and Atlantic City. On average, the new records exceeded the old ones by 21%.

Location                        Amount    Old Record
Charlotte NC         CLT         1.72    1.70    1938
Wilmington NC        ILM         1.83    1.43    1873
Cape Hatteras NC     HSE         1.79    1.62    2009
Norfolk VA           ORF         2.53    1.93    1890
Wallops Island VA    WAL         2.33    1.28    1969
Blacksburg VA        RNK         1.01    0.75    1973
Salisbury MD         SBY         1.75    1.70    1969
Washington DC        DCA         1.42    1.31    1943
Washington-Dulles VA IAD         1.41    1.00    1969
Atlantic City NJ     ACY         2.60    2.44    2009
Bridgeport CT        BDR         0.55    0.51    1949 (12-27)
Islip NY             ISP         0.53    0.40    1984 (12-27)