Screenshot NBC news
Oct. 7. By Dave Vieser. While all eyes are on a potential hurricane later this week near the west coast of Florida, questions have begun to emerge as to why Hurricane Helene, unlike previous rain/wind events, did so much horrific damage to western North Carolina.
After doing some preliminary research, Cornelius Today contacted Trisha Palmer, Warning Coordination Meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Greenville/Spartanburg Airport, which covers our area, for an explanation.
Trisha Palmer
‘Several weather systems’
“It was actually a combination of several weather systems which created such severe conditions,” said Palmer. “That pretty well sums up why western NC was hit so hard.”
And just what were those systems?
While a very strong hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, Helene had weakened to a tropical storm by the time it reached the Carolinas. If pre-storm conditions had been drier and more tranquil, less damage would have occurred.
What were those conditions?
About 10 days prior to Helene reaching North Carolina, the Appalachians were soaked by a line of showers and thunderstorms which ran up the mountains from southwest to northeast. Numerous weather stations reported as much as 3-4 inches of rain in a 24 hour period. This saturated the surface in Western North Carolina.
Then came something called a Predecessor Rain Event (PRE), which dumped up to six inches of rain Sept. 25-26. This storm hit the mountains as well as the LKN area.
Just what is a PRE?
Some hurricanes and tropical systems generate areas of heavy rain far ahead of the main storm system. They generally occur about 36 hours ahead of the main storm passage. The presence of a front in the area along with a strong moisture flow can enhance rainfall in this region, leading to potentially heavy rains that can cause flooding or set up the region for flooding once the main storm..in this case Helene.. moves over the PRE region.
An imperfect 500-year storm
Then came the blast from Helene, which pounced upon the already saturated region causing catastrophic flooding.
It was, in many respects, the worst of all circumstances coming together.
The GSP weather office certainly had the impact headlined in weather forecasts for days prior, but the extent was overwhelming.
Milton update
Hurricane Milton is now a Category 4 storm that is intensifying and will strengthen further over the record-warm Gulf of Mexico. Forecasters with the National Hurricane Center predict Milton will hit Florida’s western Gulf Coast near Tampa as a major hurricane then travel across central Florida into the Atlantic Ocean,
