NYC Saw One Of Its Wettest Years Ever In 2018

NEW YORK — All those nor'easters and subway floods helped put 2018 in the record books. Last year was New York City's fourth-wettest on record as nearly five and a half feet of precipitation fell.

Some 65.55 inches of precipitation soaked Central Park in 2018, well above the normal level of 49.94 inches, according to the National Weather Service's annual measurements.

That was enough to crack the top five on the weather service's list of the 10 wettest years since 1869. Last year's total fell just behind the 67.03 inches of precipitation that fell in 1972, the third-most ever. The all-time record was set in 1983, when a whopping 80.56 inches hit.

Central Park also saw 39.6 inches of snow in 2018, according to the weather service. That's 13.8 inches more than normal but well below the record of 64 inches, which was set in 1896.

The city's abnormally wet weather appears to be a relatively recent trend — all of the 10 wettest years have now been recorded within the last five decades. The 10 driest years, by contrast, stretch back to the 1880s.

(Lead image: Pedestrians walk through a wintry mix in New York City on Nov. 15, 2018. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)