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Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Tropical Cyclone Carlos dumps record amount of rain (13 inches in 24 hours) on Darwin, Australia, February 16, 2011



by Joseph Romm, Climate Progress, February 16, 2011

Last week, I reposted Dr. Jeff Masters’ piece, “Extremely dangerous Tropical Cyclone Yasi bears down on flooded Queensland, Australia.”  Now comes Carlos.  While it isn’t as “strong” as Yasi, it has dumped a stunning amount of water on this most water-soaked country:

Just two weeks after Tropical Cyclone Yasi caused massive destruction to parts of Australia, another big storm has brought further flooding to the far north of the country. 
Tropical Cyclone Carlos dumped a total of 339.6 mm [13 inches] of rain over Darwin during the 24-hour period ending midnight GMT on Wednesday. This is an all-time record for the city over a 24-hour period and eclipses anything that Yasi produced over any town in a single day. 
In fact, Darwin has now had a staggering 470 mm [18.5 inches] of rain over a 48-hour period, and there is more to come. The storm is moving very slowly and that is why we are seeing such huge rainfall totals over a similar area. In the case of Yasi, the wind was as much a damaging feature as the rain. Typical rainfall totals were nearer 160 mm of rain over a 24-hour period.
The warmest sea surface temperatures in Australian records have been fueling floods called ‘biblical’ — floods covering an area “the size of France and Germany combined.” ABC News has explained “Raging Waters In Australia and Brazil Product of Global Warming.”

In a globally warmed world, the saying will be rewritten:  When it rains, it deluges.

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