Ohio citizens made full use of their umbrellas in 2011, as the especially rainy year set precipitation records.
Jeff Rogers, an atmospheric science professor at Ohio State, said while the results are unofficial and pending data verification, a weather monitoring station in Hamilton County broke the all-time record for precipitation in Ohio.
“We set a year-long precipitation record in 2011. Currently we are debating, weather service and some of the climate people, just who is going to own the new Ohio precipitation record,” Rogers said.
The National Weather Service reiterated that statement.
“After a year that has seen abnormally high rainfall across the state of Ohio (particularly the southwestern portion), several observing sites have unofficially surpassed the record for the highest yearly precipitation total in Ohio,” the statement said.
Rogers said there will soon be a meeting to ordain Cheviot, Ohio, which is a suburb of Cincinnati, as the official record holder. Unofficially, the Cheviot station experienced 76.24 inches of rainfall in 2011. That is 5.42 inches more than the previous 141-year record.
“(The record) used to be 70.82 inches of rain at a place called Little Mountain in Lake County,” Rogers said. “That record was set in 1870, and this year there is a station down in Hamilton County called Cheviot, and they have to still verify their records, but they got 76.24 inches.”
Rogers said the numbers in Cheviot were not unusual for this year, as many stations broke records.
“A lot of stations in Ohio either set new records, set all-time records for precipitation, or they’re in second place,” Rogers said.
In Columbus, 2011 set the mark for the wettest year recorded. This year, 54.96 inches of rain fell in Columbus, which is 1.8 inches more than what fell in 1990, the previous Columbus record year, according to the National Weather Service.
Columbus was not the only city to break its all-time record.
In Cincinnati, 2011 shattered the previous record. The southern Ohio city experienced 73.28 inches of precipitation in 2011, which is 15.7 inches more than the previous record in Cincinnati, also set in 1990.
A message from the National Weather Service said that all this new data, as of now, is unofficial.
“This data should be considered preliminary and unofficial. After the end of the year, a review process by the National Climatic Data Center and other climatologists will take place in order to officially determine if a state of Ohio precipitation record was indeed broken,” the statement said.
