Extreme weather events like Sandy, Isaias, Henri and Ida show need for accurate, advanced alerts
NEW YORK -- Several coastal storms have done historic damage to our area. In fact, we're still feeling the impacts of some of those extreme weather events.
The last 11 years have brought five named storms, whose intensity and devastation have forever changed the way we look at weather.
Hurricane Irene in August 2011 was downgraded to a tropical storm just before it made landfall in New York City. But with 65 mph winds, it was the largest storm to hit the area in 25 years .
That's where we started our extreme weather conversation. CBS2's Lonnie Quinn spoke with fellow meteorologist Joe Rao at the weather station at Belvedere Castle in Central Park.
"Ever since 1919... We've been recording each and every hour ... all sorts of weather information that has been vital," Rao explained.
This is vital to weather reporting -- establishing vital benchmarks for daily forecasting and larger weather events, like Superstorm Sandy, which hit in October 2012.
"We ended up getting those very potent, powerful, southeasterly and southerly winds, which took all of that water and literately like launched it and pushed it right over Long Island, Staten Island, Brooklyn -- flooding everything out," Rao said.
The storm surge in Battery Park at the Brooklyn Tunnel reached 14 feet, shattering a record set in 1821. The Jersey Shore was battered, as well.
This new era of storms shows us just how dangerous they can be. It's a fact storm chaser Nicholas Isabella is well aware of.
"I absolutely love it. I can't go a day without checking the forecast models," Isabella said.
Isaias landed August 2, 2020. Isabella saw first hand the damage that left nearly a million people in this area without power.
Then late last summer, there was the catastrophic one-two punch of Henri and Ida, coming August 31 and Sept. 1. It was a bounty for a storm chaser, if not a little frightening.
"That flooding was definitely one of the scariest things," said Isabella.
Collectively, Henri and Ida caused some of the most devastating flooding this area has ever seen.
Central Park recorded a record smashing 3-plus inches of rain in just an hour. Rushing waters flooded subways and streets, and trapped people in their homes. The terrifying storms killed more than 40 people in the Tri-State Area, a number that showcases the critical need for both advance and up-to-the-minute information is never more critical.
That's where First Alert weather comes in.
"We're really, really trying to get the word out as early as we possibly can, giving people a heads up about hazardous weather that's moving in," said Quinn.
"The technology that we have today, weather has changed so much in the last 10 or 15 years in alerting people and warning people about what is coming their way," Rao said.
