Recalling Tropical Storm Hanna 16 Years Ago

Today marks 16 years since the arrival of Tropical Storm Hanna. The storm came and went fairly quickly Saturday, September 6, 2008, delivering more than three inches of rain at Sikorsky Memorial Airport, scattered power outages, and gusty winds. It could have been a lot worse, but the storm raced through the region, arriving late Saturday afternoon and exiting during the early morning hours Sunday, September 7.

The storm brought a peak wind gust of 39 miles-an-hour and a peak wind speed of 30 miles-an-hour, sparing southwestern Connecticut any damaging or destructive winds. Perhaps the most memorable aspect of the storm was the brutal tropical humidity throughout the day, ultimately leading to the heavy downpours by late-afternoon through the evening hours.

The heaviest rain fell to our North, with parts of Northern Fairfield County receiving over a half-foot of rain. Remember, the average normal rainfall for September is 3.58 inches. 

The bands of heavy rain made traveling difficult at times, and some roadways were flooded. Mackenize Kilmartin of Fairfield sent the following photo showing minor flooding in her hometown.

 
Christine from Greenwich wrote, "Here are pictures from Todd's Point and Binney Park. Sorry if they're not great photos, but it was the best I could do without getting my camera wet."

Local residents sent the following photo of flooding on Shippan Avenue at the West Beach soccer fields under construction in Stamford. This picture was taken at 7:30 Saturday evening.

Here are some of the unofficial rainfall totals from across southwestern Connecticut from Hanna's visit:

• Woodbridge: 5.04"
• Norwalk: 4.37"
• Fairfield: 4.13"
• Greenwich: 3.93"
• Stamford: 3.62"
• Stratford: 3.55"
• Milford: 3.42"
• Bridgeport: 3.30"

The storm followed the forecast track for the most part, with the eye of the storm passing just to our East late Saturday evening and moving well to our North and East by the end of the weekend. The skies cleared quickly the following day. 

Paul