25.91 inches of rain
Approximately 88 billion gallons:
A complex of slow-moving thunderstorms dropped tornadoes and extreme rainfall across Broward County in Florida this week, causing historic flooding that forced residents to abandon vehicles and scramble to higher ground.
…
The excessive rainfall, which fell at rates briefly topping six inches per hour, was a product of slow-moving thunderstorms anchored atop a stalled frontal boundary. The initially unanticipated deluge stemmed from the natural randomness of the atmosphere, but it fits into a pattern of a warmer, wetter world with higher rainfall rates.
Statistically, the episode easily qualifies as a thousand-year rain event — or one that would have a 0.1 percent chance or less of occurring in any given year.
Approximately a third of the city’s average annual rainfall came down during an eight-hour window. With reports of up to 25.91 inches at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the event obliterated the previous record for wettest calendar day, which was 14.59 inches, set April 25, 1979.
26 inches in one day!
I first tried to get more information via a National Weather Service video, but it started with an ad and when that finished and I again clicked start it began to load another ad so I gave up. But guess what the ad I did sit through was for. An SUV. Lots of aerial shots of shiny new SUV driving along mountain roads. Irony much?
H/t J.A.
When I left work yesterday, got in my compact car and rolled the windows down as fast as I could (it was nearly ninety – in April – in Nebraska!), the SUV next to me was idling. The driver was sitting there playing with his phone. I’m sure his air conditioner was running because, well, ninety degrees and no windows open.
Idling cars for no good reason is stupid, and maybe evil. And I can think of very few reasons for idling cars, other than stop lights or getting over for police/ambulance.
Tell me about it. A couple of days ago I was at beautiful Carkeek Park again (for the first time in a few weeks) and in cutting through a parking lot on my way to a trail I passed an idling SUV with no people in it. It was still there when I passed it on my way back after climbing the hill and going back down – this time I peered into a window and…there was a guy taking a nap. Not a homeless guy (unless homeless guys live in expensive SUVs), just a guy. I felt murderous.
What are the solutions? (Are there even any? Not just something that could plausibly work, but could also be plausibly implemented?)
I had hope, when I was in college in the early 2000s that maybe (just maybe) climate change would be the universal threat that brings humanity together, but now… Well, let’s just say that I fear for my niece and nephews because of the world they are going to inherit.
Are there reasons not to despair?