A Day in the Life of the Hudson River

General Note: Snapshot Day Participants 2005 faced residual effects of Hurricane Tammy as they collected data. Weather conditions ranged from wet to wetter. Driving rains dumped inches of rain throughout the Hudson Estuary. Piermont area (image above) received 3.9 inches of rain during the day and Manhattan received 4.26 inches of rain, a record rainfall amount for one day according to the National Weather Service. Flood Watches were in place for much of the participating area.

In some instances participants had shelters where they could huddle and perform test. In other areas they used school buses as a base of operations (Mahopac HS image). Still others ran quick tests in the driving rain and headed home. A few schools unfortunately had to cancel their involvement and are looking forward to next year.

While the data collection was less comprehensive in some locations than in prior years due to the poor weather conditions, dedicated students, teachers and environmental educators did a remarkable job of gathering baseline information in all reaches of the estuary. The rainy conditions actually offer a unique set of factors which can be used in data examination:

These and other questions make this year's data interesting to consider.