Excessive rainfall continues to overshadow areas of lower 48 on Monday morning, with counties west and south of Chicago under fire flood warnings after viewing up to half foot of rain.
Every flood operating in warmer atmosphere because of human-caused climate change and is capable of release more extreme amounts.
In Denver thunderstorms exploded parts of northern metro area on Sunday night, getting them wet with up to an inch and half of rain in just 20 minutes. Rainfall in some areas of this intensity is expected occur every few hundred years.
Many roads have been closed, including section of Interstate 70. ABC’s Denver affiliate described “traffic nightmare” with drivers stuck for hours along the interstate and nearly 20 people in need of salvation.
“Looks like our hardest report has come in by 2.5 inches of rain,” said David Bargenbirch, meteorologist for the National Weather Service. office in Boulder, although the radar showed the possibility of locally higher amounts.
dark green area in this map represents where 2″+ of it is likely to rain in <30 minutes yesterday.
This includes Globeville, City Park, Clayton, Elyria-Swansea, Park Hill + Commerce City.#9wx #COwx rice.twitter.com/fkvXyFqAss
— Chris Bianchi (@BianchiWeather) August 8, 2022
He explained that in most areas there were only storms. for about 40 minutes at any time location. They were moving at about 15 miles per hour.
“This is the pinnacle [time of year] in terms of monsoon rains,” Bargenbirch said, referring to the southwest monsoon—a seasonal wind shear that helps moisture drift. north over desert southwest, four corners region and, in times, Front Range Colorado. “July, early August is usually our outbreak flood season. And this time we had abundant hydration, a lot more than usual here.
He referred to the infamous flood events, like one which hit Fort Collins in 1997 or the Big Thompson episode that claimed the lives of 144 people. people when the leg of rain poured into the Big Thompson River in just a little hours’ time on July 31, 1976
people stuck in Friday’s flood in Death Valley could “carefully out on broken roads” over weekend, according to the National Park Service.
About 1.46 inch of Rain is coming down — just shy of 1.47 inch record. total is about three quarters of typical years worth of rain.
Lowest, driest and hottest location in USA, Death Valley averages just 0.11 inch of rain in August.
Many vehicles were damaged by the sudden flood and caused by landslides.
The park service said there was a flood. destroyed water system which serves numerous park residences and facilities. it also said many miles of roads damaged and littered with debris.
Like Denver, its downpours were triggered southwest monsoon.
flood in northern Illinois
Parts of Illinois west and south of Chicago were also it rained heavily early Monday, causing an outbreak flood warnings in northwestern and north central parts of state. weather service office serving Chicago got about a dozen reports of flooding, including around Rockford before noon.
“[T]Significant flash flooding is as close to the subway as Rockford and Byron, Illinois, about 90 miles to the west. of Chicago,” said Met Service meteorologist Matt Friedlane. “DeKalb and Sycamore… about 70 miles west of Chicago… also had a flood.”
Friedlin said that Rockford broke the downpour on August 8. record with 2.62 inch as of 7am Alone weather south station of Rockford posted 6.21 inches.
Some historical perspective on precipitation past 2 days in #Rockford: consecutive calendar days (08/07/2022 to 08/08/2022) of 2 inches + total rainfall first such a phenomenon has been there since July 23-24, 2010. 4.70″ dropped on 07/23/2010 and 2.81″ fell on 07/24/2010. #ilvks
— NWS Chicago (@NWSChicago) August 8, 2022
short bullet of heavy rain passed through Chicago, but its impact was limited.
Explanation of exceptional precipitation
The heavy rains were caused by typical summer moisture accumulating along a stalled front descending from the Colorado Rockies into the central hilltop states. heat dome spread out over Southern United States Such fronts compress moisture out of in air like someone is squeezing out washcloth. It may lead to the norm of precipitation of 2 to 3 inches – or more – in hour. These fronts also act like railroad tracks guiding development thunderstorms over the same areas repeatedly.
That was eight days ago in St. Louis where 7.87 inches of the rain was falling in six hours’ time. It caused an outbreak flood emergencies throughout the city and cars flooded with rising flood waters. Extreme flooding in eastern Kentucky just two days later with 37 people now confirmed dead. President Biden, who visited region on On Monday, he promised help from the federal government in recovery efforts. Another storm has fallen up up to 14 inches of late rain last week near Effingham, Illinois.
As the atmosphere continues to heat up, events of this value will become more and more common. What will happen translate increased economic losses, damage to vulnerable and aging infrastructure, and danger to the public especially in urban areas.
in past two weeks, we watched four 1-in-1000 year rain events. This does not mean that the level of precipitation falls once every thousand years, and in any given year it should have 0.1 percent chance of happening.
Limitation of 1000-year rainfall metric is that it is based on historical data and on the assumption that the climate is not changing. As the atmosphere continues to heat up, its ability to store and transport humidity increases, this indicator loses its value as rare before events become more common.
