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Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News
Paul Huttner

Hurricane Sally crawls ashore with "historic" flooding.

Another slow-moving, hurricane with likely climate change links.

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The latest likely billion-dollar weather disaster has hit the U.S.

Hurricane Sally slogged ashore at a mere 2 to 3 mph today. That’s the speed of a leisurely stroll in the park for humans. It’s also the perfect recipe for torrential rainfall totals.

The NWS office in Pensacola describes the 20 to 30-inch rainfall and resulting flooding as historic.

Hurricane Sally rainfall totals and flooding
Hurricane Sally rainfall totals and flooding
NWS Pensacola Florida

This is one of those stories that are best told with pictures and videos.

Most of downtown Pensacola was under deep floodwaters Wednesday.

Damage is severe along the coast near Sally’s landfall zone.

Hurricane records falling

The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season is blowing away some previous records.

The trend of hurricane intensity flaring just before landfall is worrisome and has produced greater damage.

The trends in extreme weather events continue to accelerate at an unprecedented pace. The number of billion-dollar weather disasters has surged in the past decade.

Climate change fingerprints

This is another storm with likely climate change links. When attribution studies are complete, I have little doubt that climate scientists will be able to attribute climate change impacts to slower storm movement and increased rainfall from Sally.

Attribution studies for Hurricane Harvey found a climate change component of rainfall of 15 to 30-percent due to warmer water in the Gulf of Mexico.