Hurricane Debby expected to unleash historic rainfall

Today’s Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory features Hurricane Debby, just hours before the storm made landfall near the town of Steinhatchee, Florida. 

The Category 1 hurricane had sustained winds of around 80 miles (130 kilometers) per hour at the time of landfall on August 5, 2024.

“As of 11 a.m. Eastern Time that day, over 207,000 homes were without power, according to PowerOutage.us. NWS forecasts called for the storm to bring 10 to 20 inches of rain and ‘life-threatening’ storm surge of up to 10 feet to parts of the Big Bend region, where Florida’s panhandle curves to meet the peninsula,” said NASA.

Ingredients for storm intensification

Debby, which became a tropical storm on August 3 in the Gulf of Mexico, is the fourth named storm of the 2024 hurricane season. 

Patrick Duran, a hurricane expert at NASA’s Short-Term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) project, noted: “There’s a lot of warm water and low vertical wind shear in the Gulf of Mexico right now, which are two key ingredients for storm intensification.”

Debby poses serious flood risk 

The storm is now stalling over southeast Georgia and delivering torrential rainfall. Debby will continue to pose a serious flood risk as it moves northeast into North and South Carolina.

NASA pointed out that Debby hit the same stretch of sparsely populated land as Idalia, which came ashore as a Category 3 hurricane in August 2023.

“Though Debby is weaker than Idalia, its slower pace means it could unleash ‘potentially historic’ rain across the Southeast, according to the NWS,” said NASA. 

“Forecasts indicate that from August 5 to 10, parts of southeast Georgia, coastal South Carolina, and southeast North Carolina could see 10 to 20 inches of rain, with up to 30 inches possible in some places.”

Debby threatens historic Southern cities

According to the Associated Press (AP), Debby threatens to flood some of “America’s most historic Southern cities” as it moves toward the Eastern Seaboard’s low-lying regions.

The AP report noted that about 500 people were rescued from flooded homes in Sarasota, Florida, which was one of the cities hardest hit by flooding on Monday.

Sarasota County Fire Chief David Rathbun said the city received twice the amount of the rain that was predicted.

Nearly 200 people were also rescued from flood waters in Manatee County just north of Sarasota.

“We are facing an unprecedented weather event with Hurricane Debby,” said Jodie Fiske, public safety director for Manatee County. “The safety of our residents is our top priority, and we are doing everything in our power to respond effectively to this crisis.”

The GeoColor image was captured by the ABI (Advanced Baseline Imager) on the GOES-16 (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-16).

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