No hurricane has made landfall in state since 1985

It’s been an especially rainy summer in Connecticut, though the state hasn’t actually seen a hurricane this year.

Actually, a hurricane hasn’t made landfall in Connecticut in 36 years when Gloria tore through the state in 1985.

That’s not to say Connecticut hasn’t had storms. Quite the opposite, according to Gary Lessor, of Western Connecticut State University’s weather center. There has been no shortage of tropical storms, depressions and the remnants of hurricanes.

“Seems like we’re getting tropical storm after tropical storm,” he said.

This year has seen nine named storms so far, including Fred, Henri, Elsa and now Ida, which Lessor said was somewhat unprecedented. The fact that four of those have or will affect Connecticut is also rare.

“I don’t recall being impacted by four tropical systems in a year, especially not considering there’s only been nine so far this year,” Lessor said.

This has been a particularly rainy summer. There were 15.7 inches of precipitation in Fairfield County between May and July, the last full month for which data is available, 120 percent of normal.

That holds true across the state. Precipitation in Litchfield County was 134 percent of normal between May and July, 124 percent of normal in New Haven County and 119 percent of normal in Middlesex County.

But, by the time these storms made it to Connecticut, “none of these were hurricanes,” Lessor said. “You could go decades between hurricane strikes in Connecticut without a doubt.”

There was Hurricane Bob in 1991 but, as Lessor noted, it made landfall in Rhode Island: “Gloria was the last true direct-landfall Connecticut hurricane,” he said.

Long Island is in the way, but the real reason Connecticut hasn’t seen so many full-strength hurricanes is the water temperature.

The current water temperature in the Long Island Sound is 75 or so degrees, and while that may be warm and enjoyable, it’s a bit too cold for hurricanes.

For a hurricane to form, “everything has to be perfect,” Lessor said. “It wants 80s, 90s, the warmer the better.”

The water in the Gulf of Mexico off the shore of Galveston is currently a balmy 89 degrees, which explains why Ida is doing it’s voodoo so well.

“That’s why the Gulf coast gets hammered on a fairly regular basis,” Lessor said.