The moon and clouds conspire to flood Hudson River Park

M. sent this photo and video of the river lapping over the bulkhead in Hudson River Park at Harrison. The video below is just past City Vineyard. And the embedded video from Twitter from photographer Max Guliani is from the Gansevoort Peninsula in the Village. Yipes.

Our part of the city got 1.19 inches of rain as measured by the National Weather Service in Greenwich Village. That plus high tide — which was at 9:30 this morning — made the river overflow.

Plus, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) tells me, one a month, when the moon is closest to the Earth (at perigee), tide-generating forces are higher than usual, producing above-average ranges in the tides. That is today, Jan. 13.

But wait, there’s more! The tidal ranges are also enhanced when the Earth is closest to the sun (perihelion), which occurs about Jan. 2 of each calendar year. (It is farther away on July 2.) So we must be getting a double hit from those planetary alignments.

 

1 Comment

  1. just like “hurricane Irene” ( which made me too complacent for Sandy!)

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