Hurricane Debbie is bearing down on the Southeast. Is this amount of rain normal?

This article was originally published by Climate News Insider And here as Climate Department cooperate.

Tropical Storm Debbie, a slow-moving, water-logging weather system that has battered four southeastern states, has many of the hallmarks of global warming, climatologists say. It is reminiscent of other catastrophic tropical cyclones that have hit the U.S. in the past eight years.

The storm was moving at 5 mph near the South Carolina coast Wednesday afternoon, about the speed of a monarch butterfly. The storm is expected to speed through North Carolina today, with a foot or more of rain possible in the southeastern part of the state and 6 to 8 inches expected in the central Piedmont.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency this week and warned residents on Wednesday to “be prepared for flooding.”

A warmer atmosphere holds more water; likewise, higher temperatures speed up evaporation. “There’s a lot of water in this system that’s just about ready to come out,” says NC State climatologist Kathy DeLo. “We’re pulling more moisture into the air, essentially pressurizing the atmosphere. Or, as I like to say, taking a cup of coffee and pouring a few shots of espresso.”

Tropical Storm Debbie arrives as North Carolina is on track for one of its warmest decades on record. As of the end of June, 99 of the state’s 100 counties were experiencing drought conditions ranging from abnormally dry to severe, according to the state climate office.

In July, that reversed, with several cities reporting their wettest July weather on record.

“With climate change, we expect to see alternating wet and dry conditions,” Delo said. “Extreme weather will become more extreme.”

Tropical Storm Debbie brought back memories of two historic hurricanes that struck North Carolina — Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence in 2018. Although both hurricanes were Category 1 hurricanes when they made landfall in the United States, they were exceptionally devastating because they stalled over land and dumped historic amounts of rainfall — up to 3 feet — in eastern North Carolina. Thousands of people were left homeless, and damage totaled billions of dollars.

Tropical storms and hurricanes bring heavy rainfall to the United States, an indicator of climate change. According to a study Published last month Climate Magazinea publication of the American Meteorological Society.

John Ulin co-authored the paper with Carl Schreck III, both scientists at the North Carolina Climate Research Institute.

Yulin told Climate News Insider that Tropical Storm Debbie is “a classic example of what we’ve seen a lot in recent years,” including Hurricanes Harvey and Florence, “where you have a stalled storm near the coastline and then you dump a lot of rain over the same area for quite some time.”

Using historical rain gauge data, Ulin and Schluck found that heavy rainfall from tropical cyclones is becoming more frequent and more extreme. The largest increases in extreme rainfall were seen in major hurricanes (Category 3 to 5 hurricanes).

“The real impact we’re seeing is that the most severe incidents have become more severe,” Yulin said, while overall, “the more mundane incidents have not increased at the same rate.”

Yulin said the study’s findings could help local governments, planners and residents prepare for more frequent weather disasters.

That especially includes inland areas, where the study found the biggest increases in rainfall: from Alabama and Mississippi to the southern Appalachians, including the mountains of North Carolina. Flooding in higher elevations poses different threats than coastal areas, including mudslides and more difficult evacuations.

“Locations that are not familiar with dealing with these types of threats are going to have to start dealing with them more frequently,” Yulin said.

“It’s important for people to remember that our climate is changing, and these types of events are happening more frequently and their impacts appear to be getting bigger,” he said. “As a society, we have a responsibility not only to mitigate the impacts of these changes, but also to do what we can to prevent them from getting worse.”

Debbie Login The Category 1 hurricane is on a similar path to last year’s Hurricane Idalia, a Category 3 hurricane that was a major force to be reckoned with in the state. Strongest It has been attacking this part of the state since 1896.

Hundreds of thousands of Florida residents were without power, and Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in 61 of the state’s 67 counties. His administration deployed more than 9,400 feet of flood protection at critical infrastructure sites, including schools, health care facilities, roads and bridges. His administration also installed flood barriers around utility substations for the first time to prevent more outages. The government said.

Florida officials fear more flooding later this week as water continues to flow south from rain-soaked Georgia and the Carolinas. As of Wednesday, Florida Emergency Management had pumped more than 104 million gallons of floodwater from communities across the state, the DeSantis administration said.

“Flooding could last anywhere from three to seven days,” said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Department of Emergency Management. “We’re going to be monitoring it for about a week.”

The worst flooding occurred about 200 miles away in the Sarasota Big Bend area, a beach community south of Tampa. As much as 12 to 18 inches of rain hit the community as Debbie’s outer circulation swirled about 80 miles offshore. Those rainfall totals are among the highest in the state, said Tony Hurt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Ruskin, south of Tampa. Florida typically gets about 50 inches of rain a year.

according to Police StationTo the north, in neighboring Manatee County, 186 residents were rescued. Local government Officials said the rainfall was record high.

“With anything like this, you try to be prepared and flexible,” said Terry Chapman, pastor of South Road Christian Church in Sarasota. “We’re just thankful it wasn’t worse.”

Some of the church’s parishioners have friends and family members who have also been affected by the flooding, and congregants are considering the best way to provide assistance. The hardest-hit areas are east of Interstate 75, away from the Gulf Coast.

“Those are the newer houses,” Chapman said. “Those are the houses that were built in the last 20 years.”

Warmer sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico contributed to Debbie’s rapid intensification, a phenomenon that is becoming more common due to climate change. A warming climate also causes more water to evaporate, creating more water vapor that can form heavy rains like the one that caused Hurricane Debbie, said James Marshall Sheppard, director of the atmospheric sciences program at the University of Georgia.

“For Florida residents, there may be an increase in rainfall intensity from afternoon storms and hurricanes,” he said. “The pumps are on, you could say. I would say that these hurricanes may be a little bit more intense because of the extra water vapor capacity.”

There is about 10 percent more moisture in the atmosphere today, said Brian Soden, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Sciences.

“It just makes the problems that come with hurricanes worse,” he said. “Not only are there winds, but there are heavier rainfall. There are storm surges and sea level rise, which is gradually rising. That means it takes longer for rainfall in coastal areas to make its way to the ocean, which further exacerbates the flooding problem.”

Debbie is the second hurricane to hit the United States this year, following Hurricane Beryl, the earliest recorded Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, which provided an explosive start to the season, according to the National Hurricane Center. NOAA (NOAA). Beryl weakened as a Category 1 storm on July 8 when it made landfall near Matagorda, Texas, between Corpus Christi and Galveston. Hurricane season begins on June 1, peaks in August and September, and ends on November 30.

NOAA has predicted an unusually active hurricane season with 17 to 25 named storms, the largest number the federal agency has predicted since it began forecasting in 1998. The agency expects eight to 13 hurricanes and four to seven major Category 3, 4 or 5 hurricanes, with winds of 111 miles per hour or more.

NOAA Unprecedented predictions A combination of factors, most notably unusually warm sea surface temperatures, are likely to fuel more storms, the agency said. Forecasters also noted a rapid shift to La Nina conditions is expected, which results in less wind shear, or atmospheric fluctuations, that can weaken or break up storms. An average season has 14 named storms, including seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes.