Ed. note: This article, originally published in 2018, has been reprinted with updates to reflect current events and recent developments. The remnants of Tropical Storm Debby brought widespread impacts to New York, setting rainfall records and triggering warnings around the state.
According to the State Weather Risk Communication Center at the University at Albany, Penn Yan’s rainfall total was 2.12 inches per hour. Historically, Yates County isn't an area considered prone to heavy precipitation events or flooding.
Still, they have occurred, and research by climate scientists shows that the frequency and intensity of heavy precipitation events are on the rise. Multiple factors influence when heavy rainfall will become a severe weather event. In Yates County, heavy rain is often welcomed because it provides water necessary for agriculture and replenishes the streams and lakes, but when does it become too much of a good thing? It’s more than just the amount of rain that falls.
A combination of components — topography, vegetative cover, and land use among them — influence if flooding results from a given amount of rain. Yates County boasts diverse and distinctive topographical features, including drumlins, valleys, lakes, streams, ravines, and waterfalls. This natural grandeur not only adds to the county's beauty but also influences the course of heavy rainfall, creating variable and localized impacts.
However, heavy and prolonged rainfall can lead to streams overflowing, causing flooding in adjacent areas. Floodwater flowing from higher-elevation streams and ravines picks up velocity and debris as it moves into valleys and lakes at lower elevations, resulting in increased sediment and debris discharge. Intertwined closely with its topography is the vegetative cover of Yates County.
The landscape is vibrant year-round, with delicate pinks of orchard blossoms, golden wheat fields, vibrant fall foliage, and deep-green conifers. This abundance and heterogeneity of the landscape are advantageous during heavy rainfall events. Vegetation modifies the intensity and distribution of rain as it falls on leaves and flows through stems, preventing that portion of precipitation from becoming runoff.
Trees and forested areas have the highest interception rates, a fact supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
According to the USDA, crops can intercept 0.10 inches of precipitation. Soil surfaces devoid of leaves with waxy surfaces would intercept only half this amount.
Land use and changes can also influence if heavy rainfall events result in flooding, especially in urban areas. People remove vegetation and soil in urbanized regions, construct drainage networks, modify stream channels, and pave a significant area. Drainage networks direct rainfall to streams, and modifications can inhibit their capacity for floodwaters.
Impermeable paved surfaces prevent infiltration, which leads to water pooling and runoff in drainage networks. Streams fed by this runoff have significantly increased peak discharge and volume in heavy rainfall. Additionally, development along these stream channels often removes vegetation that provides bank stability and slows the velocity of the water, making it more susceptible to erosion.
While Yates County is not an area considered prone to severe rain events, they can happen — and they can be devastating. However, it's also known that severe rain events are on the rise, so historical experiences must be combined with future climate and weather models when planning. Using this knowledge and understanding of the local landscape and land use, individuals in the community can play a significant role in adopting innovative practices and changes to mitigate the severity of heavy rainfall events.
This empowerment and responsibility are key to our collective efforts. As an individual, you can make changes to better prepare and protect yourself and your home from severe rain events, such as elevating your furnace, but have you thought about your yard? Your forested or agricultural land? Here are some proactive approaches: • Plant more native trees and plants. • Create rain gardens for a beautiful way to divert and collect water: https://bit.
ly/4doZ55C . • Install rain barrels to collect water, offering eco-friendly watering for your gardens. • If your driveway is paved, consider adding drainage directed to a rain garden instead of the street.
• For future projects, choose permeable materials. • Consider reducing or eliminating your use of fertilizers and pesticides to prevent these products from leaching into the watershed. • If you are a forest owner, maintain a healthy canopy cover to increase interception.
Follow Best Management Practices when harvesting. • If you have streams, ravines, or ditches on your property, establish riparian buffers to increase infiltration, interception, filter pollutants, and prevent erosion: https://on.ny.
gov/3ArLRqj . • Follow NYS DEC’s recommendations for removing woody debris from streams, ravines, and ditches at https://tinyurl.com/4jdhrbb2 .
• If you own agricultural land, consider leaving crop matter and/or sowing cover crops for year-round soil coverage to reduce runoff by increasing interception rates and minimizing soil crusting and compaction. Cover crops protect the soil from erosion, improve soil health, increase biodiversity, and reduce the need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides. As a community and as a county, we can work together with other community members and leaders to develop and implement green planning and infrastructure.
This collaboration is crucial in mitigating the impacts of heavy rainfall events and ensuring our residents' safety and well-being. It makes us feel united and part of a larger, collective effort. • Take a watershed approach to planning instead of each municipality planning separately.
Identify frequent flood hazard locations and explore mitigation measures. • Know the community and County climate characteristics and storm frequencies and intensities. Also, know the different land use practices and vegetation covers and consider topography, slope, and soil structure when planning.
• Continuously look for opportunities to include green infrastructure when updating or planning a new development: https://www.dec.ny.
gov/lands/58930.html . • Consider planting more trees and flowers in your parks, playgrounds, business districts, streets, and trails.
• Add rain gardens to schools, parks, and business districts. • Help maintain or increase the area of public parks, wetlands, and forested areas. • Promote ecotourism at https://www.
iloveny.com/travel-tools/ecotourism/ . • Protect watersheds by keeping lakes, streams, and other waterbodies healthy.
About CCE All-Hazards Preparedness and Response Education: Deeply embedded in the fabric of local communities, Cornell Cooperative Extension has an opportunity and an obligation to serve New York residents when crises arise. Our mission mandates we “put knowledge to work,” which means being a trusted source for up-to-date information on how to prepare for, what to do during, and how to act after disaster situations. At CCE, disaster preparedness, response, and recovery efforts fall under the All-Hazards Preparedness and Response Education Program.
APREP disaster researchers and educators across Cornell University and CCE develop evidence-based guidance on preparedness, response, and recovery after natural disasters and emergencies, assist with CCE emergency operations, and conduct research that informs future response and recovery efforts. Within APREP, the New York Extension Disaster Education Network is a collaborative educational network based at Cornell University and dedicated to educating New York residents about preventing, preparing for, and recovering from emergencies and disasters. For more information, visit their website at eden.
cce.cornell.edu .
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