Blitzstorm: Extremely Rapid Ida Downpour Shocks NYC

Cars sit abandoned on the flooded Major Deegan Expressway following a night of extremely heavy rain from the remnants of Hurricane Ida in the Bronx borough of New York City on Sept. 2, 2021. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

News Analysis

Sept. 1 started as a regular rainy day in New York City. By 4 p.m., grey overcast sweated out just 0.13 inches of rain in Central Park, below normal for the time of the year, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). But by midnight, the city would suffer the deadliest weather disaster since Superstorm Sandy.