Northeast states register 2004 as ninth wettest year
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) – Apples and ducks did nicely in 2004, the ninth wettest year on record in the Northeast. The 12-state region stretching from West Virginia to Maine averaged 47.1 inches of precipitation, 3.5 inches more than the norm, climatologist Keith Eggleston of the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University said Friday.
It was the second wettest year in Pennsylvania, the third wettest in West Virginia and the 11th wettest in New York since record-keeping began 110 years ago. It was also wetter than usual in Maryland, New Jersey and Rhode Island. The driest spot was Maine with 37.7 inches.
In contrast, it was a slightly warmer year – 0.2 degrees above the 47-degree Fahrenheit norm for the Northeast. But the seasons were sharply out of kilter.
“It was the ninth warmest spring on record, then the 18th coolest summer, then we swung back round again to the 24th warmest fall,” Eggleston said. “When you balanced it all out, it wound up pretty close to normal.”
The unusually rainy summer – 14.6 inches on average in the Northeast – translated into fewer forest fires and smaller air-conditioning bills but swelled worries about insect viruses and put a damper on vacations in some places.
The wettest state year-round was West Virginia with 54.7 inches, 9.4 inches more than average, followed by Pennsylvania (53.9), Connecticut (49.4) and Rhode Island (48.7).
In New York, heavy rains helped fruit growers mightily – the average apple yield of 25 million bushels a year jumped above 28 million bushels – but had a sometimes disastrous effect on potatoes, cabbage and other vegetables.
“Some potato growers in western New York lost up to 70 percent of their crop,” said Peter Gregg of the New York Farm Bureau. “A lot of cabbage growers had their crop shorted by upwards of 40 percent. If you had a commodity that’s grown in the ground, you were much more vulnerable to the heavy rains as opposed to if you had a crop on trees.”
After the wettest July ever in New York, persistent rain through August kept attendance figures below 1 million at both the 12-day New York State Fair and the six-week season at Saratoga Race Course.
While the rain brought a late-summer dip in hotel stays, a few resorts seemed extra resilient.
“We don’t have to rely on only one source of income,” said Christina Lussi, co-owner of Lake Placid Resort, Hotel & Golf Club in Lake Placid.
“We do a lot of events on an annual basis – a rugby weekend, lacrosse, an Ironman competition, indoor figure skating – so the hotel stays were probably even if not up,” she said. “Lake Placid is a little bit on the weatherproof side.”
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On the Net:
Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University, www.nrcc.cornell.edu