Monday, October 5, 2015

Flood Threat Continues in Carolinas

Portions of South Carolina have seen more than 20 inches of rain from this storm, and widespread totals of a foot or more cover much of an area bounded by Interstate 26 on the west, Interstate 20 on the north and the Atlantic Ocean on the south and east.
The top rainfall total so far is 26.88 inches near Boone Hall Plantation to the northeast of Charleston in the Mount Pleasant area.
The Weather Underground rain gauge in Dalzell, South Carolina, had received 21.66 inches of rain Sunday as of 9:46 p.m. By comparison, the official 24-hour rainfall record for the entire state of South Carolina is 14.80 inches set during Hurricane Floyd in Myrtle Beach on Sept. 16, 1999.
Gills Creek, in Columbia, South Carolina measured 16.61 inches of rain in about 17 hours on Sunday and just over 20 inches total since Friday.
There will likely be several candidates for replacing the official record, and it typically takes several months for NOAA's State Climate Extremes Committee to certify new state records.
Charleston International Airport broke its all-time calendar day rainfall record with 11.50 inches on Saturday. The storm-total rainfall (Oct. 1-4) through Sunday was 17.29 inches, which makes it the wettest October on record at that location, crushing the old record of 12.11 inches in October 1994. This also ranks as the fourth wettest month on record overall.
Rainfall Amounts This Month
Rainfall Amounts This Month
A graphic showing total rainfall amounts since Oct. 1, in inches.
    Downtown Charleston has logged a storm rainfall total of 16.29 inches through Sunday, including 9.25 inches on Saturday alone. This is now the wettest October on record in downtown Charleston, surpassing the previous record of 11.59 inches in 1959.
    Gills Creek had risen to 17 feet Sunday morning before it stopped reporting, easily topping the previous record crest for that gauge of 9.43 feet on July 24, 1997. The National Weather Service in Columbia said the reason the gauge stopped reporting was because it was swept away in the floodwaters. The Smith Branch at North Main Street in Columbia crested at 18.87 feet late Sunday morning, topping the previous record crest of 15.12 feet on July 22, 2013. 
    The first landslide of this flood event blocked a road near Old Fort, North Carolina, east of Asheville, early Saturday afternoon. The nearby Catawba River reached levels seen during Hurricane Frances in 2004, according to local emergency management. A combination of gusty winds and wet soils has also led to some downed trees in South Carolina and northeast Georgia.

    http://www.weather.com/forecast/national/news/soaking-weather-pattern-east-flooding

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