The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-10-11
The Deluge Of 1908.


In thirty-one and half hours on Thurs
day and Friday 10. 04 inches Of rain fell in
this city. This record is not only very
exceptional in New York, but also in any
part of the country. Only few falls
amounting to ten or twelve inches in
day have ever been recorded at our
weather stations Some statistics and
comparisons will give an impressive idea
of the deluge through which v" have
just passed.
The highest annual rainfalls on record
in our country are 1928 inches at Neah
Bay, Washington. in 1880, and l4O.3
inches at Sitka in the same year; but we
have just experienced in little over
day fall of rain amounting to about
one-twelfth that at Neah Bay and one
fourteenth that at Sitka in whole year.
The storm of May 30 to June l, 1880, which
broke the dam at Johnstown Pa, caus-
ing terrible destruction of life and prop
erty, was estimated at eight inches Of
rain, or four-tifths of that which we have
just recorded.
Late on Thursday afternoon the fall
was remarkably heavy for about an hour,
but we have as yet no data enabling
us to compare this especially marked
period with that at Washington on June
n, 1881, when 2.34 inches in thirty-seven
minutes were recorded, or the fall at
Philadelphia on June 20, 1887, which was
062 inches in seven minutes
In little over day and quarter We
have had nearly one fourth as much rain
as normally falls in this city or in WASH
ington in a year. Tropical Para has only
seven times as much in year, Paris and
Stockholm only twice the quantity in a
year. Perhaps our experience will give
us slight appreciation Of the enormous
precipitation at Cherrapunji, on SUBJ
ordinate range of the Himalayas north
of the Bay of Bengal, where the greatest
fall ever recorded in a day was 40s
inches on June "A, 1875, and where the
average fall for the five rainy months is
almost three inches in day.
1t is difficult to conceive Of the enor-
nous weight of the downpour of last
Thursday and Friday. We know, of
course, that water is very heavy, and
that when a fall adds to its weight the
resulting power is enormous. Thus the
theoretical water power of Niagara
Falls, over which 10000 cubic feet of
water plunges every second, is about
1000, 900 horse power, nearly equal to the
entire steam and water power used in
the United States The weight of ten
inches of rain water on square mile is
computed at 724 800 tons. At this rate
the weight Of the water which fell on the
POS square miles of New York city in
thrty-one and half hours was 2l3,sl8,-
600 tons. The Indian scientific service
calculated the weight of the ten inches
Of rain which fell over 10000 square miles
OF north India on Sept. l7-ls, 1880. at
7,24S, COX, 900 tons.
During our storm Poughkeepsie re-
corded seven inches, and Ballston, near
Saratoga, about six inches in twenty-four
hours, and the total rainfall in inches
was not much less than in this city
The storm in it's full force covered all
the eastern part of the Middle Atlantic
states, from Virginia to northern New
York, and it is probable that the totaI
weight Of water falling on this vast area
was several times as great as that esti-
mated for the Indian storm Of 1890