Disastrous flooding plagued areas between Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Miami on Wednesday after nearly a foot of rain fell, transforming roadways into rivers and leaving homes and businesses treading water. It was the wettest summer day on record in Fort Lauderdale, where bookkeeping dates back to 1912.
Skip to end of carousel
What to know about flooding
Floods and flash flooding can be dangerous and sometimes fatal. They occur when excess water accumulates faster than the ground can absorb it, leading to runoff, such as during extreme rainfall or snowmelt.
Here are the places in the United States that are most at risk and how federal maps are failing to warn Americans about the danger.
While flooding is generally an event that can last days or weeks, flash floods can occur rapidly, developing within hours of the cause, often during extreme weather events. Last year, there were five “1,000-year rain events” in the country in five weeks.
If a flood watch is issued for your area, be aware and check weather reports. Flood warnings require immediate action because severe weather is imminent and flooding will probably occur.
If an evacuation is advised for your area, leave immediately. But don’t enter or drive through floodwater because it takes only a foot of fast-moving water to sweep vehicles away. Know the catchphrase: Turn around, don’t drown.
1/4
End of carousel
The National Weather Service issued a dire flash flood emergency for “catastrophic” flood impacts between Miami-Dade and Fort Lauderdale.
The episode comes 14 months to the day since an incredible 22.5 inches fell on Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport in a single day, leading to unprecedented flood impacts. Both episodes bear the fingerprint of human-caused climate change, which is increasing the intensity and severity of top-tier rain events.
To make matters worse, the ongoing rain event is far from over, and another half-foot or more of rain could fall in some spots before downpours finally wind down into Friday. In some areas, roadways are still impassable due to high water.
Advertisem*nt
The National Weather Service issued a rare “high risk” outlook for excessive rainfall for parts of South Florida, including Miami and Naples on Thursday. These outlooks are issued on only 4 percent of days but account for a third of all flood-related fatalities and 80 percent of flood-related damage.
How much rain has fallen?
Here’s how much rain fell just on Wednesday:
- 12.71 inches in Hollywood
- 12.6 inches along Interstate 75 (Alligator Alley) in rural north Collier County
- 12.1 inches at the Miami Date College North Campus
- 10.63 inches in North Miami
- 10.85 inches at Dania Beach
- 10.63 inches in North Miami
- 10.4 inches at Miami Shores
- 9.58 inches at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport
- 8.49 inches at the City of Sunrise Fire Station
- 6.76 inches at Everglades City
- 5.89 inches on Marco Island
If we look at what has fallen since Monday morning, there are a few totals closing in on 18 inches:
- 16.04 inches at Kirby Storter Park on the Big Cypress National Preserve
- 15.71 inches in North Miami
- 15.47 inches along Alligator Alley in rural Collier County
- 15.37 inches in Miami Shores
- 15.08 inches at Dania Beach
- 14.54 inches in Everglades City
- 14.41 inches in Coconut Creek
- 13.01 inches at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport
- 12.59 inches in Coral Springs
- 11.56 inches in Fort Lauderdale
- 10.76 inches in Weston
Did the rain break records?
A number of records were set across the area. Wednesday’s 9.54 inches nabs the top spot for the wettest summer day on record, surpassing the 8.6 inches that fell on June 2, 1930. It’s the eighth wettest day at the airport of all time.
A typical June averages 9.55 inches of rain, meaning an entire month’s worth of rain came down in one day.
Advertisem*nt
Between 1 and 2 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday, 2.41 inches of rain fell. That’s the seventh wettest hour on record at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport. Hourly weather observations date back to 1973, but seven of the wettest hours on record have occurred in the past 10 years, and all have occurred since 2003.
One station in Hollywood, Fla., logged 10.22 inches of rain in six hours, which statistically falls just shy of a 100-year rain event, or an event that has a 1 percent chance of happening in a given location any given year. Sunny Isles Beach got 6.47 inches in 3 hours, which occurs on average once every 25 years.
The climate connection
It’s well established that the frequency, and intensity, of rainfall events is increasing in tandem with our warming atmosphere. A warmer world is a wetter world, since warmer air has a greater propensity to hold water. For every degree of increase in heat in the atmosphere, it can hold 4 percent more moisture.
Advertisem*nt
That’s why extremes like this are becoming more common, and rainfall rates are getting heavier too. Moreover, a more saturated atmosphere during high-end events increases precipitation efficiency; in other words, more of the raindrops survive to the ground without evaporating, leading to more rapid accumulations.
What’s next?
Weather models depict continued shower and thunderstorm activity across South Florida on Thursday afternoon and evening, with the chance that another 3 to 6 inches falls. Localized greater totals can't be ruled out.
The rainfall won’t extend much north of a line from Punta Gorda to the Space Coast, though a renegade afternoon shower or thunderstorm is possible.
By Friday afternoon, only typical late-day summertime storms are expected. The parent low-pressure system will be pulling into the northwest Atlantic, where it has a low-end chance of acquiring subtropical characteristics as it passes over the warm waters or the Gulf Stream. According to the National Hurricane Center, the system has a 20 percent chance of development.
