NBC6’s Adam Berg has the latest numbers from the National Weather Service.
The final rainfall numbers are coming in and they are historic. Fort Lauderdale got drenched with nearly 26” of rain on Wednesday, beating the old number by more than 11 inches!
The sheer size of the heavy rain swath boggles the mind too. We saw a ten inches of rain or more as far north as Oakland Park, as far west as Plantation and as far south as Hallandale Beach in less than 12 hours.
So how did this happen?
A front pushed through South Florida late Sunday and stalled across the Florida Straits for a couple days.
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High pressure to the north allowed a deep East to West moving plume of moisture to gain hold over the region. Periods of heavy rain cycled in from the Atlantic Monday and Tuesday. The rains were impressive but this was just the appetizer.
Low pressure began to develop along the front in the central Gulf and head North. This triggered the stalled front South of us to work back to the North as well but as a warm front.
Winds collide along all types of fronts and push air high into the atmosphere. As air lifts it cools, condenses and eventually produces rain.
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That’s exactly what the warm front was doing across South Florida on Wednesday, but this front was moving slowly.
This allowed winds to collide over the same areas for hours on end. The positioning of the front brough the heaviest of the rains to northern Miami-Dade and Broward county. Rain rates were coming in at 2-3 inches per hour for 6-12 hours. The result was historic rainfall and flooding that we may not see again in our lifetime.
Interestingly, the most extreme daily rainfall numbers for Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Key West have occurred during “dry Season.” This just goes to show that heavy rain can occur during any month. All you need is a trigger.
