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Danbury Begins To Dry Out After More Than 2 Inches Of Rain

FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Conn. -- After "we hit the jackpot" for heavy rains in the past two days, Fairfield County is beginning to dry out and is looking forward to a stretch of sunny, warm weather, according to a local meteorologist.

Dark clouds roll in over Southport Beach in Fairfield before a storm in July.

Dark clouds roll in over Southport Beach in Fairfield before a storm in July.

Photo Credit: Alissa Smith

Here are the rainfall totals for the past two days, according to Gary Lessor, assistant to the director of meteorological studies and the Weather Center at Western Connecticut State University: 

  • In Danbury, 2.32 inches total, with 1.32 inches on Monday and 0.90 inches on Tuesday;
  • In Bridgeport, 2.04 inches total, with 1.32 on Monday and 0.72 inches on Tuesday; and
  • In White Plains: 2.99 inches total, with 1.54 inches on Monday and 1.45 inches on Tuesday.

"It's certainly not a record, but it's very impressive," Lessor said of the rainfall totals.

Wednesday was partly sunny, with a high near 80. Thursday will be sunny, again with a high in the 80s.

This week's series of storms was the second run in July of successive heavy rains. Fireworks fans remember the rainy events from July 3 to July 4. In those storms, 2.5 inches of rain was recorded in Danbury.  

"The whole month of July, we would normally have 4.68 inches of rain. But these storms have brought our monthly total in Danbury to 4.95 inches so we are already ahead of the game."

Forecasters had predicted a series of big storms would occur this summer, Lessor said. 

He blames the weather pattern on cold air blanketed over the upper Midwest that is creating a zone on the East Coast for storms to develop from western New York to Boston. "That is where we thought most of the heavy precipitation would be," Lessor said. "And that is playing out very well this summer."

That cold air maintained across the Midwest is also causing the West Coast to sizzle, holding the heat in places from Seattle in the 90s to the deserts in the Southwest in the triple digits, he said. 

Temperatures are heating up across the Fairfield County region -- averaging 1.1 degrees above normal for July, Lessor said. 

"That is surprising because precipitation usually holds down the warm temperatures," he said. "But we have been getting a full day of warming, with the showers later in the day. And it's not cooling down as much in the nighttime."

This bubble of cold in the Midwest will lift northward in next few days, stabilizing the weather pattern in Fairfield County until at least July 24 to July 25. "Following that we could see another stormy period," Lessor said.

"July has been a very wet month," he said. 

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