Development of High-Resolution Precipitation and Temperature Products for New York City

Urban centers such as New York City (NYC) require high resolution hydro-meteorological information in order to provide the most accurate climate and weather services to its inhabitants, whether they live on the eastern shore of the Bronx or in the heart of Flatbush, Brooklyn. With the deployment of the New York Urban Hydro-meteorology Testbed (NY-uHMT), a sub-hourly automated hydro-meteorological network of weather stations across the city, research entities and the governing bodies of NYC are provided with a magnifying glass to observe the micro-climate for improvement efforts to weather forecasting and early storm warning services. The research within the scope of NY-uHMT objectives prioritizes: quality assurance of the data, validation of public observational and forecasting operations or products, analysis of spatial variability in temperature and rainfall, and educational outreach on climate and weather research. Quality assurance and quality control of the data is employed by on-site visits to weather stations, daily telecommunications monitoring, and data processing. A data validation analysis between NY-uHMT and the three stations in NYC operated by the National Weather Service (NWS) yielded similar rainfall averages for the city in the Spring of 2018 at 0.11 inches. Although both networks of weather stations captured the average rainfall behavior of the city, only the NY-uHMT provided information upon where in the city it was raining more than average on rainy days. This information can provide significant value in determination of areas in the city at higher risk of flash floods. Another analysis was completed using NY-uHMT data as evaluation points to NOAA’s High Resolution Rapid Refresh forecasting model using the Model Evaluation Tools software. In doing so, a framework was developed for conducting a high resolution evaluation of gridded quantitative information (model forecasts, quantitative precipitation estimation, etc.) against the observations taken from the NY-uHMT network. Application of this framework in future study will demonstrate the value and reliability of the high resolution network in NYC and other urban hubs. As a coastal city, New York city is vulnerable to the impact of increased urbanization and exposure to extreme weather events, jeopardizing health and property loss. Collection of higher spatial and temporal resolution data in NYC will mobilize development and improvement for near-real time flash flood guidance systems and engage local communities in climate and weather research through data analysis.