Debby delivers record rainfall to upstate NY. See the totals

The remnants of Tropical Storm Debby brought widespread impacts to New York, setting rainfall records and triggering warnings around the state.

Upstate New York had already been rocked by a series of powerful storms resulting from remnants of Hurricane Beryl in July . While Debby didn’t bring the same breadth of destruction, it still caused as much as $28 billion in total damage and economic loss, based on a preliminary estimate from AccuWeather.

A number of rainfall records fell at locations around the state, including in the North Country and Southern Tier. There were 10 all-time one-hour rainfall rate records broken based on the 126 stations in the state Mesonet network, highlighted by the State Weather Risk Communication Center at the University of Albany . Here are some notable rainfall totals, with all-time records noted by an asterisk:

• Belleville, Jefferson County: 2.48 inches/hour
• Cohocton, Steuben County: 2.22 inches/hour (record)
• Roxbury, Delaware County: 2.17 inches/hour (record)
• Penn Yan, Yates County: 2.12 inches/hour
• *Potsdam, St. Lawrence County: 2.07 inches/hour

A dozen daily rainfall precipitation records were also recorded on Aug. 9, with Edwards in St. Lawrence County eclipsing 5 inches of rainfall. Other notable daily rainfall totals, with all-time records marked denoted:

• Edwards, Lawrence County: 5.29 inches (record)
• Potsdam, St. Lawrence County: 4.91 inches (record)
• Tannersville, Greene County: 4.47 inches
• Bradford, Steuben County: 4.09 inches
• Philadelphia, Jefferson County: 4.14 inches

Rochester recorded 0.73 inches of rain on Aug. 9, well short of the daily record of 1.71 inches set in 1951. For the year, Rochester is 0.68 inches above normal for precipitation.

There were a record-breaking number of flash flood warnings for New York in August issued on Aug. 10, with 20 issued.

Rating the impact of Debby and Beryl

While Beryl and Debby both made landfall as Category 1 hurricanes based on the Saffir-Simpson scale, AccuWeather has developed a different measure for hurricanes, the Real Impact scale . While the Saffir-Simpson scale only factors in wind speed, the Real Impact scale factors in flooding rain, storm surge and economic damage and loss into the equation. The scale ranges up to 5, with different criteria for each level.

The widespread flooding and coastal flooding caused by Debby had it classified as a 3 on the AccuWeather scale. To be classified as such, the hurricane must have impacts from this list:

• Widespread and substantial flooding
• Structural damage to building, especially mobile homes
• Trees down
• Power outages
• Major coastal inundation

— Steve Howe covers weather, climate and lake issues for the Democrat and Chronicle. An RIT graduate, he returned to Rochester after working around the state and in Utah. See anything interesting in the night sky? Tell him at showe@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Debby delivers record rainfall to upstate NY. See the totals