Sunday’s heavy rain turned deadly in Connecticut — at least two deaths have been reported.
Southwestern Connecticut was hit hardest as up to 10 inches of rain fell in some areas. One town even got 16 inches.
That led to flooding of roads and basements and scores of water rescues.
At a press conference Monday updating the public on the state response to Sunday’s storms in Connecticut, Brenda Bergeron, the deputy commissioner of the state Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, said that some areas had dealt with rainfall on “a 1,000 year level.”
Connecticut Public Meteorologist Garett Argianas wrestles with the idea of whether such categorizations remain relevant, as severe weather becomes more common.
“These one in 1,000 year type storms are happening at a greater frequency, not just in Connecticut, but nationwide,” Argianas said. “So we have to be more resilient and more aware that these types of storms are likely to happen more often, given the fact that the climate has changed.”
Oxford hit hard
No where on Sunday was that change more evident than the scene of Gov. Ned Lamont’s press conference, Oxford, Connecticut. The Naugatuck Velley town usually gets about four inches of rain in the month of August, but saw over 16-inches of rainfall on Sunday.
“It’s truly historic and unprecedented,” Bergeron said.
The severity of Sunday’s storm was unexpected, even for meteorologists like Argianas.
“This amount of rain was just not forecast by any of the computer models,” Argianas said. “So we were looking at this, as you know, the chance for some rain to come through for sure, but there was no indication that we would see this level of rainfall across the Northeast.”
Floods just aren’t a coastline problem
The hardest hit areas Sunday were in the southwestern part of the state, closer to Connecticut’s coastline. But inland areas like towns along the Farmington River have experienced flooding this year, too.
Argianas warns that inland communities that are not near rivers also need to be vigilant about possible flooding.
“It's not specific to the river areas or the coastline as an example, but you can have areas that just, you know, maybe are between some hills,” Argianas said. “Connecticut's not super elevated.”
Lower-lying areas will definitely raise flooding concerns, he said.
Ground saturation
After a very wet 2023 in Connecticut, and after significant rainfall from several storms this year, there’s thought that the ground statewide may be saturated.
Argianas says saturation may be contributing to the flooding problem in some parts of the state.
“When the ground is wet and it can't really handle runoff at all, that allows the water to kind of collect and rise,” Argianas said. “So that is definitely going to be a concern if … there are places where the ground is saturated.”
Sundays storms not related to “Ernesto”
Argianas said the weekend storm was not related to the system that was a few miles off of America’s east coast, Hurricane Ernesto.
“Typically when we've had these big blunt events, there was some tropical connection,” Argianas said. “In this case, it was not. It was just a slow moving storm coming through the Northeast with high humidity and heavy rain. So that does make me more concerned moving ahead.”
