How remnants of Hurricane Ida wreaked havoc on Northeast

As the Earth warms, the amount of water vapor that the atmosphere can hold increases -- allowing for more extreme, record-shattering precipitation.

The remnants of Hurricane Ida brought a record-breaking deluge to the northeastern U.S. Wednesday. The National Weather Service issued the first-ever flash flood emergency for New York City Wednesday evening while the city was walloped with 7.19 inches of rain. Over 3 inches of rain fell from 8:50 p.m. to 9:50 p.m., making it the wettest hour for the city on record. At least 29 people are dead in the Northeast due to the storm. The amount of rain that fell in such a short amount of time made the storm unprecedented. Parts of New York and New Jersey are coming off of their top three wettest summers on record, so the ground was already saturated with rainfall. New York City just broke rain records from Hurricane Henri less than two weeks ago.