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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHurricane Florence could be a lot like Harvey. Here's why.
In late August 2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas on San Jose Island. Over the following five days, Harvey's forward movement slowed to a glacial pace, essentially stopping over the greater Houston area, weakening in terms of wind speed but retaining an immense amount of moisture that eventually fell as rain in catastrophic amounts.
A year later, residents in the southeast and Mid-Atlantic may face the exact same scenario with Hurricane Florence, and the reason will be eerily similar.
A ridge of high pressure, extreme especially for this time of year, will develop just off the coast of New England, shunting the path of Florence toward the southeast coast. The strength of this ridge will be unprecedented in 30 years, according to forecast models.
With such a strong area of high pressure directly to the north of Florence, the storm has no pathway to curve out to sea as many other tropical systems usually do. Florence will be forced to the west, passing over an environment that is extremely favorable for intensification and on a collision course with the East Coast. But that represents only half of the problem.
As these animations show, Florence is forecast to stall out after the storm makes landfall. The stall is the result of the historic high pressure to the north of storm, refusing to budge and trapping Florence in one location for several days.
Despite being stuck, Florence won't die out easily. The storm will probably lose its hurricane designation rather quickly once it moves over land, but there is still the problem of all that water the storm was carrying. Even when Florence reaches a post-tropical phase, the storm will still be dumping tons of rain over the same locations for several days. It could be similar to Hurricane Harvey's impact on Texas and Louisiana in 2017.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/hurricane-florence-could-be-a-lot-like-harvey-heres-why/ar-BBN9xHD?li=BBnbcA1
krispos42
(49,445 posts)I believe when they had flooding a couple of years ago it was animal waste from pig and chicken farms as well as coal ash that got into the water supply.
Yuk!
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Well, actually, I would be heading to a long stay at a motel somewhere NW of where I lived, cause I know how horrible post-hurricane heat/mosquitoes/loss of power/ water and food issues can be after a big one.
My rural town got hit by Hugo in 2004, power was out for 3 weeks.
I am no longer of an age where any of this is "a fun adventure to tell your grandkids about"
TheCowsCameHome
(40,168 posts)How I loathe that bastard..........
Lisa0825
(14,487 posts)I live in the Houston area, and the devastation from Harvey was just crazy. Everyone I know still has flashbacks whenever we get a rainstorm. I don't want to see anyone else get 50 inches of rain.