HURRICANES INTO NEW ENGLAND — BROOKS 



249 



stable lapse rate was increased, and the increased rate resulted in 

 deep convective overturning and extraordinarily heavy rains, amount- 

 ing to 4 to 6 inches or more over the central and western highlands 

 of New England. These amounts added to the 8 to 11 inches that 

 had fallen in the preceding 4 days gave 5-day totals of as much as 

 17 inches and resulted in record floods. 



The lowest pressure reported from a land station was 27.94, shown 

 at a Coast Guard station, Bellport, on the south shore of Long 



RAINFALL 



SEPT. 21, 1938 

 Inches 



SEOGR.REVIEVy, JAN! 1939 <^J4- 



FiGUEE 4. — Rainfall map of New England and New York for the 24 hours ending about 

 7 p. m., September 21, 193S. The maximum rainfalls with the passage of the tropical 

 storm came near the highlands of southeastern New York (Scarsdale, 6.6 inches), 

 the southern portion of the central highlands of New England (Storrs, Conn., 6.2 

 inches), and in south-central New Hampshire (over 5 inches). The zone of heavy 

 rainfall from north-central Connecticut into New Hampshire was in contrast to the 

 light rainfall of Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts, because the tropical air was 

 forced to ascend rapidly only where the hurricane winds were rapidly converging near 

 the center, and especially where the tropical air had to ascend over the obstructing 

 polar air along the warm front. The highlands of central New England augmented 

 this ascent. 



Island. At New Haven the sea-level pressure fell to 28.11 and at 

 Hartford to 28.04. It seems that the center went closer to Hartford 

 than to New Haven and that there was relatively little filling up 

 of the storm during the first half hour after it struck land. There- 

 after the successive low pressures observed at stations in Massachu- 

 setts and Vermont were appreciably liigher, though the lowest 

 pressures were not represented by the distribution of the observing 

 stations. Though the reduced energy available must be recognized 

 as permitting friction to weaken the storm, the greatly increased 

 drag over the tree-covered hilly to mountainous surface slowed the 

 whirl more rapidly than would have been the case at sea. 



