{"id":345655,"date":"2024-10-06T14:02:10","date_gmt":"2024-10-06T12:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=345655"},"modified":"2024-10-06T14:02:12","modified_gmt":"2024-10-06T12:02:12","slug":"hurricane-helene-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=345655","title":{"rendered":"Hurricane Helene Update"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Paul Homewood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have now got most of the data in for Hurricane Helene, so it is time for a proper recap:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Hurricane Helene <\/em>intensified<\/em><\/a> as it approached Florida\u2019s Big Bend in fall 2024, ultimately making landfall as a Category 4 storm at 11:10 p.m. Eastern Time on September 27. Even while its center was still over the Gulf of Mexico, the hurricane had begun producing devastating outcomes on land. A <\/em>predecessor rain event<\/em><\/a> and then the main storm system brought heavy precipitation to southern Appalachia starting on September 25. Deadly and destructive flooding occurred as a result in eastern Tennessee, western Virginia, and North Carolina, among other areas.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This map shows rainfall accumulation over the three-day period ending at 7:59 p.m. Eastern Time (23:59 Universal Time) on September 27, 2024. These data are remotely sensed estimates that come from <\/em>IMERG<\/em><\/a> (the Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for GPM), a product of the <\/em>GPM<\/em><\/a> (Global Precipitation Measurement) mission, and may differ from ground-based measurements. For instance, IMERG data are averaged across each pixel, meaning that rain-gauge measurements within a given pixel can be significantly higher or lower than the average.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Asheville, North Carolina, a total of 13.98 inches (35.52 centimeters) of rain fell from September 25 to 27, according to <\/em>National Weather Service<\/em><\/a> records. The storm <\/em>swamped neighborhoods<\/em><\/a>, damaged roads, caused landslides, knocked out electricity and cell service, and forced many residents to evacuate to temporary shelters. Record <\/em>flood crests<\/em><\/a> were observed on multiple rivers in the state. Flooding was widespread across the southern Appalachians; <\/em>preliminary rainfall totals<\/em><\/a> neared or exceeded 10 inches (25 centimeters) in parts of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the coast of Florida, the heaviest rainfall was concentrated west of the storm\u2019s center, in and around the town of Apalachicola. For hurricanes in the gulf, heavy rainfall typically occurs east of the storm\u2019s center, where counterclockwise rotation brings in the most moisture from the water body. In the case of Helene, a frontal boundary over the Florida Panhandle interacted with the circulation to concentrate the highest totals west of the center, <\/em>noted Steve Lang<\/em><\/a>, a research meteorologist at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parts of the Florida coast receiving less rain were not spared from flooding, however. <\/em>Several Gulf Coast cities and towns<\/em><\/a>, including Cedar Key and Tampa, were affected by <\/em>storm surge<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/earthobservatory.nasa.gov\/images\/153387\/devastating-rainfall-from-hurricane-helene<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asheville and the surrounding region took the brunt of the flooding, and nearly 14\u201d of rain in three days is certainly unprecedented in Asheville since records began. But the NWS shows that this was actually spready evenly over all three days:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
https:\/\/www.weather.gov\/wrh\/Climate?wfo=gsp<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As can happen, atmospheric blocking meant the storm was trapped over the Asheville area for all three days. Daily totals of four or five inches are unusual but not unheard of. It was the duration of the rain that really caused the problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But that has not stopped the usual suspects<\/a> blaming the floods on climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NWS have also published the wind speed data. In Florida peak gusts hit 99 mph (not sustained), a long way below the claimed Cat 4 levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

140 mph sustained winds may have occurred somewhere out over the sea, but never got anywhere near that on land, at least where there was any measuring equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
https:\/\/www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov\/discussions\/nfdscc4.html<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But that has not stopped the usual suspects blaming the floods on climate change.<\/p>\n

NWS have also published the wind speed data. In Florida peak gusts hit 99 mph (not sustained), a long way below the claimed Cat 4 levels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":345665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691830815,691830745,691830816],"class_list":{"0":"post-345655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-gpm-global-precipitation-measurement","9":"tag-hurricane-helene","10":"tag-imerg-the-integrated-multi-satellite-retrievals-for-gpm","12":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/02024-09-27T025623Z_1692926304_RC2Q8AATUGDS_RTRMADP_3_STORM-HELENE-1727406266.webp?fit=3792%2C2130&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1rV5","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":345066,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=345066","url_meta":{"origin":345655,"position":0},"title":"No, Media. Hurricane Helene was not Worsened by Climate Change","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/03\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Hurricane Helene\u00a0made landfall on Friday Sept 27th\u00a0in Florida\u00a0as a Category 4 storm and then made its way inland, dumping large amounts of rain followed by flooding.\u00a0 Predictably, many media outlets immediately rushed to blame climate change for this particular storm and its damage. These claims are false. Data shows there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Category 4 storm\"","block_context":{"text":"Category 4 storm","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=category-4-storm"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/075392571007-11-am-hurricane-helene-sat-sept-26-2024.webp?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/075392571007-11-am-hurricane-helene-sat-sept-26-2024.webp?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/075392571007-11-am-hurricane-helene-sat-sept-26-2024.webp?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/075392571007-11-am-hurricane-helene-sat-sept-26-2024.webp?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/075392571007-11-am-hurricane-helene-sat-sept-26-2024.webp?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":408403,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=408403","url_meta":{"origin":345655,"position":1},"title":"False, Santa Fe New Mexican, Climate Change Isn\u2019t Causing Higher Insurance Rates or Dropped Coverage","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/15\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"A recent article posted at the\u00a0Santa Fe New Mexican\u00a0(SFNM), \u201cClimate change and the coming real estate calamity,\u201d claims that climate change is causing an increase in extreme and damaging weather, which then causes homes to be uninsurable. This is false. There has been no increase in extreme weather alongside the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQOFNtUzu2Fh-WhHAxiTpJOUbDdXU_ywvhIs0XWTEvvo2UXhHzbU26P3zBkoPGWJGTX3F6RjxsrdGIBpKMcLj2ofolyGj7ttP3OcxLpldAz7v6Y2aj6H4hii6AyQlkwd-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C880&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQOFNtUzu2Fh-WhHAxiTpJOUbDdXU_ywvhIs0XWTEvvo2UXhHzbU26P3zBkoPGWJGTX3F6RjxsrdGIBpKMcLj2ofolyGj7ttP3OcxLpldAz7v6Y2aj6H4hii6AyQlkwd-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C880&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQOFNtUzu2Fh-WhHAxiTpJOUbDdXU_ywvhIs0XWTEvvo2UXhHzbU26P3zBkoPGWJGTX3F6RjxsrdGIBpKMcLj2ofolyGj7ttP3OcxLpldAz7v6Y2aj6H4hii6AyQlkwd-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C880&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQOFNtUzu2Fh-WhHAxiTpJOUbDdXU_ywvhIs0XWTEvvo2UXhHzbU26P3zBkoPGWJGTX3F6RjxsrdGIBpKMcLj2ofolyGj7ttP3OcxLpldAz7v6Y2aj6H4hii6AyQlkwd-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C880&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQOFNtUzu2Fh-WhHAxiTpJOUbDdXU_ywvhIs0XWTEvvo2UXhHzbU26P3zBkoPGWJGTX3F6RjxsrdGIBpKMcLj2ofolyGj7ttP3OcxLpldAz7v6Y2aj6H4hii6AyQlkwd-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C880&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":346145,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=346145","url_meta":{"origin":345655,"position":2},"title":"Meet the 108-Year-Old 1916 Major Hurricane that Brought 8 Feet of Flood Water to Asheville, NC & Covered All of Biltmore\u00a0","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/09\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"With all the climate alarmist hype about Hurricane Helene (and yet more coming with Milton) it seems appropriate to introduced everyone to the Year 1916 Major Hurricane Number 4 that preceded the year 2024 Hurricane Helene visit to Asheville with the headlines shown below and discussed in the WUWT article\u00a0here.","rel":"","context":"In \"climate alarmist\"","block_context":{"text":"climate alarmist","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-alarmist"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/01916_Hurricane_Asheville_Floods_SteveNicklas_NOAA-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/01916_Hurricane_Asheville_Floods_SteveNicklas_NOAA-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/01916_Hurricane_Asheville_Floods_SteveNicklas_NOAA-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/01916_Hurricane_Asheville_Floods_SteveNicklas_NOAA-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/01916_Hurricane_Asheville_Floods_SteveNicklas_NOAA-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":347655,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=347655","url_meta":{"origin":345655,"position":3},"title":"Hurricane Milton: Cars save the day as Harris goes \u201cVeep\u201d","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/19\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Hurricanes Helene and Milton dealt Florida a potent one-two punch of high winds and storm surge.\u00a0 Helene\u2019s dramatic rains flooded large areas of the American South. The last thing people working to rebuild needed was unscientific posturing from the climate-Left and politicians playing for advantage, but of course that\u2019s just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Florida\"","block_context":{"text":"Florida","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=florida"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Screenshot-2024-10-19-172933.png?fit=1200%2C652&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Screenshot-2024-10-19-172933.png?fit=1200%2C652&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Screenshot-2024-10-19-172933.png?fit=1200%2C652&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Screenshot-2024-10-19-172933.png?fit=1200%2C652&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Screenshot-2024-10-19-172933.png?fit=1200%2C652&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":346108,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=346108","url_meta":{"origin":345655,"position":4},"title":"Right, CNN, There Is No Such Thing As A Climate Haven, There Never Has Been","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/09\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"A recent CNN article, \u201cPeople moved to Asheville to escape extreme weather. They forgot its tragic history,\u201d claims that Asheville North Carolina, which recently suffered catastrophic flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, was once considered a \u201cclimate haven\u201d but now is suffering from extreme weather because of climate change.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Asheville North Carolina\"","block_context":{"text":"Asheville North Carolina","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=asheville-north-carolina"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/01916_Hurricane_Asheville_Floods_SteveNicklas_NOAA.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/01916_Hurricane_Asheville_Floods_SteveNicklas_NOAA.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/01916_Hurricane_Asheville_Floods_SteveNicklas_NOAA.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/01916_Hurricane_Asheville_Floods_SteveNicklas_NOAA.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/01916_Hurricane_Asheville_Floods_SteveNicklas_NOAA.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":345463,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=345463","url_meta":{"origin":345655,"position":5},"title":"The Aftermath and Myths of Hurricane Helene – The Climate Realism Show\u00a0#129","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/05\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The Heartland Institute\u2019s H. Sterling Burnett, Anthony Watts, Linnea Lueken, and Jim Lakely will also cover some of the Crazy Climate News of the Week, including how badly EVs and hurricanes mix, who is funding the pernicious climate alarm narrative globally, whether humans can \u201csteer\u201d hurricanes, and more.","rel":"","context":"In \"climate alarm narrative\"","block_context":{"text":"climate alarm narrative","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-alarm-narrative"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Screenshot-2024-10-04-184111.png?fit=1200%2C581&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Screenshot-2024-10-04-184111.png?fit=1200%2C581&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Screenshot-2024-10-04-184111.png?fit=1200%2C581&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Screenshot-2024-10-04-184111.png?fit=1200%2C581&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Screenshot-2024-10-04-184111.png?fit=1200%2C581&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=345655"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345667,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345655\/revisions\/345667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/345665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=345655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=345655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=345655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}