Officially the wettest year in Danbury

I like Bill's winter outlook too...

DANBURY -- In 2011, Connecticut did not get a plague of locusts or a rain of toads. Lions did not whelp in the streets.
But, meteorologically speaking, nearly everything else was on the platter -- historic snowfalls, tropical storms and flooding that tore roads apart.
And now, with nearly a month to go, 2011 has set another mark -- it's the wettest year on record for Danbury.
"The glass half-full side of this is that nobody's well went dry,'' said Bill Jacquemin, chief meteorologist with the Connecticut Weather Center in Danbury.
According to Weather Underground, Bridgeport, as recorded at Sikorsky Airport, has received 54.18 inches of precipitation in 2011 so far, far higher than the average of 39.89 inches.
Jacquemin said that by the end of November, Danbury had received 72.7 inches of precipitation this year. With most of December still to go, that's more than an inch over the previous record year of 71.49 inches of precipitation that fell in 1983. It's more than 20 inches higher than the city's average annual precipitation of 49.3 inches.
What has been interesting about 2011, Jacquemin said, was that by and large, it has been wet all through the year. The only exception was in July, when only 1.43 inches of rain fell in the Danbury area.
Jacquemin said he believes that climate change is the culprit here. Because the Earth's atmosphere is warming, he said, more moisture gets into the air.
As a result, Jacquemin said, the state will see more severe storms in the years to come.
"We're going to have to keep saying `I've never seen a storm like this,' '' he said. "It's happening globally and nationally.''
But Jacquemin said that because November has been relatively warm and dry, he thinks that mild pattern will prevail. Unlike the past winter -- when it snowed a lot in December and January, much less in February and March -- Jacquemin doesn't expect winter to kick in until later.
"It will be a flip-flop of last year,'' he said.Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Living-through-Danbury-s-wettest-year-2343546.php#ixzz1fgBboZPP