{"id":9377,"date":"2024-10-01T15:52:08","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T15:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/restore\/?p=9377"},"modified":"2024-10-01T15:53:07","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T15:53:07","slug":"over-40-trillion-gallons-of-rainfall-hurricane-helene-and-storms-devastate-the-southeast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/over-40-trillion-gallons-of-rainfall-hurricane-helene-and-storms-devastate-the-southeast\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 40 Trillion Gallons of Rainfall: Hurricane Helene and Storms Devastate the Southeast"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Over 40 Trillion Gallons of Rainfall: Hurricane Helene and Storms Devastate the Southeast<\/h3>\n

In a staggering weather event, more than 40 trillion gallons of rain<\/strong> inundated the Southeast United States over the past week, resulting from Hurricane Helene and an ordinary rainstorm that preceded it. This unprecedented deluge has left experts and meteorologists in disbelief.<\/p>\n

To put this immense volume into perspective, the rainfall is equivalent to filling Dallas Cowboys\u2019 AT&T Stadium 51,000 times<\/strong> or Lake Tahoe<\/strong> just once. If the rainfall were concentrated solely on North Carolina, it would cover the ground to a depth of 3.5 feet (over 1 meter)<\/strong>\u2014enough water to fill over 60 million Olympic-sized swimming pools<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an astronomical amount of precipitation,\u201d stated Ed Clark<\/strong>, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2019s National Water Center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. \u201cIn my 25 years at the weather service, I have never witnessed such a geographically extensive event with this sheer volume of rain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The aftermath of the storm has been devastating, with reports indicating that over 100 people<\/strong> have lost their lives due to the flooding. Private meteorologist Ryan Maue<\/strong>, a former NOAA chief scientist, calculated that the eastern United States received 40 trillion gallons of rain<\/strong> through Sunday, with 20 trillion gallons<\/strong> concentrated in Georgia, Tennessee, the Carolinas, and Florida from Hurricane Helene alone.<\/p>\n

According to Clark, the rainfall figure of 40 trillion gallons (151 trillion liters)<\/strong> is likely conservative, with Maue suggesting that 1 to 2 trillion additional gallons<\/strong> may have fallen, particularly in Virginia. Notably, this volume surpasses the total water stored in key Colorado River basin reservoirs, including Lake Powell<\/strong> and Lake Mead<\/strong>, combined.<\/p>\n

Meteorologists have noted that the extreme rainfall resulted from a combination of several storm systems. Before Helene made landfall, a low-pressure system had stalled over the Southeast, allowing for continuous heavy rainfall and funneling warm water from the Gulf of Mexico<\/strong>. Additionally, a storm that did not reach named status parked off the North Carolina coast<\/strong>, dropping as much as 20 inches of rain<\/strong>, according to state climatologist Kathie Dello<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Hurricane Helene, one of the most significant storms in recent decades, brought an immense amount of rain due to its youth and rapid movement before striking the Appalachians<\/strong>. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just a perfect storm; it was a combination of multiple storms that contributed to this extraordinary rainfall,\u201d said Maue.<\/p>\n

The geographical impact was exacerbated by the mountainous terrain, which increases moisture extraction from the atmosphere. According to meteorologists, the highest recorded rainfall in North Carolina was 31.33 inches<\/strong> in the small town of Busick<\/strong>, while Mount Mitchell<\/strong> received over 2 feet<\/strong> of rain.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on past storms, Clark remarked, \u201cBefore Hurricane Harvey in 2017, I never thought we\u2019d measure rainfall in feet. Now, we see events year after year where rainfall is measured in feet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prevailing trend indicates that storms are becoming wetter due to climate change, with experts stating that warmer air holds nearly 4% more moisture<\/strong> for every degree Fahrenheit increase. Given that the world has warmed over 2 degrees Fahrenheit<\/strong> since pre-industrial times, the implications for weather patterns are significant.<\/p>\n

Debates among meteorologists continue regarding the extent to which climate change has influenced Hurricane Helene’s rainfall. A quick analysis from scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab<\/strong> suggested that climate change resulted in 50% more rainfall<\/strong> in certain regions of Georgia and the Carolinas during Helene. Dello emphasized that the \u201cfingerprints of climate change\u201d are evident in the intensity and frequency of such storms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve observed tropical storm impacts in western North Carolina,\u201d Dello noted. \u201cBut these storms are now both wetter and warmer. In the past, a tropical storm would have brought some rain and damage, but nothing compared to the apocalyptic destruction we\u2019ve seen today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: AP<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over 40 Trillion Gallons of Rainfall: Hurricane Helene and Storms Devastate the Southeast In a staggering…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":9379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[398],"tags":[698,745,5130,5136,4512,5133,5134,5135,5131,3669,5132,5129,4608,5137],"class_list":["post-9377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","tag-climate-change","tag-environmental-impact","tag-extreme-weather","tag-flooding-statistics","tag-hurricane-helene","tag-meteorological-analysis","tag-natural-disasters","tag-noaa","tag-north-carolina-flooding","tag-ola","tag-precipitation-records","tag-southeast-us-rainfall","tag-storm-damage","tag-weather-events"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/468f57c\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/4502x3001+0+0\/resize\/800x533!\/format\/webp\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Fec%2Fc5%2F589ae9932ffdb65f25c211cba8ce%2F6baed83bcdef42a8a7f0b59196a37f55","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}