Heavy Rain in New Jersey, September 23, 2003

Name: Heavy Rain in New Jersey, September 23, 2003
Start: 2003-09-23T04:00
End: 2003-09-23T08:00
Location: New Jersey

September 23, 2003 · NWS PHI · 2 events in 2 counties and zones

A slow moving cold front helped produce heavy rain as it displaced a warm and humid air mass preceding it across northwest New Jersey. m.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 2 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 2

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS PHI wrote it up.

A slow moving cold front helped produce heavy rain as it displaced a warm and humid air mass preceding it across northwest New Jersey. While showers with heavy rain began during the early morning of the 23rd, the heaviest rain fell around the time of cold frontal passage (7 a.m. EDT). Doppler Radar Storm totals ranged from 1 to 3 inches. Poor drainage flooding occurred, but no stream flooding was reported. Storm totals included 2.90 inches in Blairstown (Warren County), 2.65 inches in Andover (Sussex County), 2.41 inches in Sussex (Sussex County), 1.99 inches in Newton (Sussex County), 1.84 inches in Phillipsburg (Warren County) and 1.78 inches in Riegelsville (Warren County). September 2003 was an unseasonably wet month throughout New Jersey. The preliminary statewide precipitation average for the month was 6.12 inches, 1.97 inches wetter than normal. On a county weighted average, monthly precipitation totals ranged from 3.7 inches in Cape May County to 9.1 inches in Sussex County. The highest (wettest) departures were in the northwest part of the state and every county was wetter than its climatological normal except for Cape May County.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Philadelphia/Mount Holly wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Sep 23, 2:52 AM EST, 1 hour 8 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Sep 23, 2:52 AM EST, 1 hour 8 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...CORRECTED TO INCLUDE DE CTY PA IN WATCH
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOUNT HOLLY NJ
352 AM EDT TUE SEP 23 2003

DROPPING FLD WATCH ESSENTIALLY FROM PHL E...SPECIFIC CNTYS LISTED
BLO...AS THAT AREA DID NOT HAVE SGFNT RAINS LAST WK...AS OPPOSED TO
OUR NWRN ZONES AND AREA TO THE IMMEDIATE W OF PHL.

OTRW...PCPN SHOULD END FM THE W BY NOON OR SHRTLY THRFTR...THEN DRY
INTO THU WHEN NXT FNT ARRIVES FM THE NW. SLOWED PCPN TIMING DOWN
JUST A BIT...BGNG THU MRNG NWRN ZONES AND THU AFTN SERN ZONES.

OTRW...LEFT EXTDDS PRETTY MUCH AS THEY WERE.

NO CHGS ON THE MARINE...SML CRAFT REMAINS UP ALL WTRS.

ZONES AND UPDATED FLOOD WATCH SHOULD FLY BY 430 AM.

.PHI...FLOOD WATCH THIS MRNG PA54-55,60-62,67-70 NJ1,7 DE1 MD8
       SML CRAFT ADVY CST AND DE BAY.

KRAUS

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

2 heavy rain. Local standard time, as filed.

Heavy Rain, Sussex

When: September 23, 4:00 AM EST to 8:00 AM EST
Where: Sussex County, Countywide
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 41.140, -74.690 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Rain, Warren

When: September 23, 4:00 AM EST to 8:00 AM EST
Where: Warren County, Countywide
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 40.857, -74.997 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

What these are

Heavy Rain: Rainfall totals unusual for the place and season that did not produce a flood.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in New Jersey in 2003 Every state in 2003 This day in weather history Warnings in New Jersey, September 2003

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5335072, 5335073.