Hurricane Helene has proven disastrous for Appalachia, as massive amounts of precipitation from the storm caused massive flooding that destroyed several towns and killed dozens of people. On Monday, the North Carolina State Climate Office provided a picture of how the “monster storm” was almost a “worst-case scenario for western North Carolina.”

‘Heavy rainfall from the remnants of Hurricane Helene ended three days of extreme, unrelenting rainfall, causing catastrophic flooding and unimaginable damage in our mountains and southern foothills,” a message from the office said. ‘…it will take years to document the full extent of this event, not to mention its recovery.’

This is how the climatologists said it happened.

North Carolina was saturated with rain before Helene struck

When Helene became a Category 1 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico — more than 500 miles and 30 hours from where it would eventually make landfall in Florida — rain was already falling in western North Carolina. The climate agency says the outskirts of Helene were feeding tropical moisture to slow-moving storms that formed along a stalled cold front.

At midnight Thursday – about an hour after landfall at Helene, 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Steinhatchee, Florida – Asheville Airport North Carolina had already seen more than 4 inches of rain. That downpour continued before Helene’s tires even came in. On Thursday evening, Yancey County, just south of Erwin, Tennessee, where the water got so bad that people became stuck on the river. roof of a hospitalhad seen over 9 inches of rain.

Water had already begun to flood the cities, “while the heaviest rain from Helene was just beginning to fall,” the climate agency said. The more than 300 miles of tropical storm force winds Helene produced only exacerbated the situation, pushing more moisture into the mountains.

“The storm’s effects were particularly long-lasting due to its enormous size. It developed in a high-humidity environment over the warm Gulf of Mexico, which allowed it to grow and strengthen unhindered,” the office said. “…From the onset of the preliminary frontal showers on Wednesday evening through the heart of Helene on Friday morning, it was some of the most incredible and impactful weather our state has ever seen.”

Record rain brings reports of ‘biblical devastation’

From Wednesday through Friday, the office said more than 8 inches of rain fell in North Carolina’s western mountains, with some areas seeing depths of a foot or more. The highest rainfall total fell in Busick, with a three-day total of 31.33 inches – more than 21 feet.

At least a dozen weather stations recorded the wettest three-day periods on record, the agency said. Asheville Regional Airport lost communications Friday morning following Helene’s landfall, but had already reported just under a foot of rain. That amount, the agency said, was “nearly three months’ worth of precipitation… in less than three days.”

All that rain caused river flooding, landslides and mudslides, leading to rescue efforts in several provinces.

In Buncombe County, home to Asheville, Ryan Cole, deputy director of emergency services, told the Citizen-Times that the “catastrophic devastation” does not accurately reflect the flood’s impact.

“It would go a little further and say there is Biblical devastation happening across the country,” Cole said. “We’ve had biblical floods here and they’ve been extremely important.”

The newspaper quoted county manager Avril Pinder as saying, “This appears to be Buncombe County’s Hurricane Katrina.”

Rare mountain tornado as Helene winds move in

“Helene brought the full range of hurricane impacts to North Carolina,” the climate agency said, “and in full force just hours after landfall at Category 4 strength.”

Helene’s winds were felt across western North Carolina, with the Charlotte airport recording the strongest gusts since a thunderstorm microburst in August 2019. The winds, which exceeded hurricane speeds in some places, contributed to widespread power outages. Millions of people were without power in several states because of Helene, and as of Tuesday morning, hundreds of thousands are still without electricity in North Carolina alone.

On Wednesday evening, as the state battled existing storms ahead of Helene, a rare mountain tornado formed in Watauga County, the first since 1998. The day after Helene made landfall, at least six tornadoes were confirmed, including an EF3 in Rocky. Mount that destroyed several buildings.

A historic and deadly storm

CBS News has confirmed that Helene murdered at least 131 people in several states. Buncombe County alone has reported at least 40 deaths, including a seven-year-old boy who was swept away by floodwaters along with his grandparents.

Although hundreds of people were rescued, more requests for welfare checks have been received. And given the severity of the damage, the climate agency suggests that “the death toll is likely to rise as hard-hit areas are finally reached in the coming days.”

“Unfortunately, our state’s long-standing benchmark for deaths during a tropical event – ​​approximately 80 during the July 1916 mountain region flood – could be at risk from this storm that has already broken numerous other records,” the climate agency said, adding adding that the 1916 event was the area’s record flood for more than a century – a title that ‘now belongs to Helene instead’.

Several rivers exceeded their all-time highs by several feet, including the Swannanoa River, which saw “the worst flooding along the river since North Carolina became a state,” the agency said.

As unprecedented as Helene’s impact on the region was, there’s a chance it won’t be the last.

“The rapid intensification of Helene over the Gulf, the amount of moisture available in the surrounding environment, and its manifestation as locally heavy – and in some cases historically unprecedented – precipitation amounts are all known side effects of a warmer atmosphere,” the spokesperson said . office said.

Last year was already the warmest person ever measured and in 2024 there will be numerous heat records. The continued use of fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, raising average temperatures and fueling extreme weather events like Helene’s.

It’s unclear when an event like Helene would plunge across Appalachia again, but the climate agency is almost certain of one thing: “We won’t see another Helene in the Atlantic Ocean.”

Officials often drop hurricane names if they are particularly devastating, and while such action has yet to be announced, climatologists suggest it may only be a matter of time.