Welcome to Mediology Matters. We are diving deep
into a fascinating and impactful storm, Hurricane
Helene. It really left its mark on the Southeastern
U .S. back in late September 2024. Oh, yeah.
A lot to unpack. Absolutely. And thankfully,
we have a pretty amazing resource to guide us.
We're going off of a really thorough report from
the National Oceanic Atmosphere Administration.
So basically everything we need to understand
this storm. Helene was quite a story. For sure.
So we're going to go through the whole thing.
We'll trap its path, dig into what made it so
intense. And break down those impacts, for sure,
across multiple states. Right. So you guys listening,
by the end of this, you'll have a much clearer
picture of just what went down with this major
weather event. And you can also follow meteorologist
Rob Jones on Instagram, meteorologist on TikTok,
TV meteorologist, and on YouTube, follow Rob
Jones Hurricane, where you can find the Meteology
Matters podcast playlist. Sounds good. So let's
dive in. Helene's story, as we say, began around
September 20th, 2024. It all started with a Central
American jar, right? J -I -R -E, pronounced like
tire, but with a J sound. Interesting. Yeah,
it brought some pretty heavy rain to Nicaragua
and Honduras. You know, it's amazing how these
large rotating weather systems, these gyres,
they can actually be the starting point for some
really powerful tropical cyclones. So the specific
gyres, think of it as this big swirling area
of low pressure. As it moved north, it started
to become more organized, like, you know, when
you have a really messy desk and then you start
putting things away. I know the feeling. Right.
So it was like that gradually getting more defined.
And by September 23, it had become significant
enough that the National Hurricane Center declared
it a potential tropical cyclone. Right, south
of Grand Cayman. Exactly. But still, it wasn't
officially a tropical cyclone yet, right? Correct.
That takes a bit more time, a bit more organization.
You see, this initial system was really spread
out, really broad. It needed to develop a much
more focused center of low -level rotation, like
a really tight spinning core, before it could
be considered a full -fledged tropical cyclone.
OK, that makes sense. But even so, that potential
tropical cyclone advisory That's a pretty big
deal, right? Oh, absolutely. That's a crucial
heads up. It means forecasters are seeing the
potential for the system to strengthen into a
tropical storm, or even a hurricane, and then,
of course, bring those conditions to land. And
we're talking within the next 48 hours or so.
So that gives communities that really valuable
time to get ready. To prepare, yeah. Exactly.
So fast forward just a couple of days. September
26, the report describes Helene undergoing this
rapid intensification over the Gulf of Mexico.
A gulf, yeah. Right. And then boom. peak intensity
around midnight UTC on September 27th. A formidable
120 knots. Wow, 120 knots. That's some serious
power. And that data came from, well, they basically
said in the big guns, both Air Force Reserve
and NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft. Wow. Yeah,
flying directly into the storm. Those flights,
they're absolutely essential. It's not just about
braving the storm. Those aircraft are packed
with all these incredible instruments. They can
measure wind speeds directly, atmospheric pressure
right in the heart of the hurricane. Wow. And
what's also really cool is that around the same
time, a Noah Bowie was anchored out in the northeastern
Gulf of Mexico, and it managed to capture some
pretty amazing surface observations. So we're
talking sustained winds of 69 knots with gusts
reaching up to, get this, 93 knots. Wow. And
a minimum pressure reading of 949 millibars.
Now that low pressure, that's a big indicator
of just how strong a hurricane is. So all this
intensification, it happened over those warm
waters of the Gulf of Mexico. as he said. And
then Helene made landfall in Florida. But what
really jumped out at me from the report was just
how fast it was moving by then, 27 knots. It
was like a speed demon. It was really motoring,
yeah. That speed, as you can imagine, it had
a huge impact on how the storm behaved once it
hit land. Typically, hurricanes start to weaken
as they move inland. They lose that energy source
from the warmation, plus they're encountering
all that friction from the land. But Helene,
because it was moving so fast, it just plowed
through. So it kept more of its strength. Right,
much more than we normally see in these situations.
And it even stayed a hurricane even after moving
inland over southern Georgia. It wasn't until
about 0900 UTC on September 27th that it finally
weakened to a tropical storm. And even then,
its center was only about 30 modicle miles east
of Macon, Georgia? Wow. So that forward speed
really played a huge role. It did. And the interesting
thing here is how it continued. As it curved
northward, it was interacting with this low pressure
system way up over the Ohio Valley. And that
interaction essentially helped to drive those
strong winds, especially the gusts, much farther
inland than you'd normally expect from a storm
that had already moved so far inland. Right.
Like across the entire southeastern US. Let's
talk more about those wind impacts. Because the
report makes it clear that these life threatening
wind gusts they extended really far inland, which
is scary. And that was a direct result of Helene's
speed and size. Absolutely. They both played
a big part. Now, the strongest sustained wind
at a low elevation that was measured on land
in Florida came in at 64 knots. But here's the
thing. That measurement was taken at about 2
.25 meters above ground. OK. So when they adjust
that to the standard height for meteorological
measurements, which is 10 meters, the estimated
wind speed there would have actually been closer
to 79 knots. And this measurement, it was taken
a little ways England after landfall. So it's
very likely that even stronger sustained wind
occurred right along the coast. So hurricane
force winds. Exactly, sustained winds of 64 knots
or higher. They actually impacted parts of northern
Florida and southern Georgia. We're talking a
pretty sizable area. Oh absolutely and Georgia
especially saw some really intense gusts like
there's this weather station in Lowndes County
south southeast of Valdosta. It recorded a gust
of 83 knots and then Bacon County Airport in
Alma even higher 87 knots. And what's also interesting
for you to note is that a bunch of locations
in Georgia and the Eastern Florida Panhandle,
they actually experience their lowest atmospheric
pressure readings ever during Helene. Ever. So
it wasn't just the areas that got hit with hurricane
force winds that were impacted. There were large
portions of eastern Georgia and even parts of
South Carolina, southern and western areas. They
saw sustained winds over 50 knots and they even
had damaging hurricane force gusts there too.
Yeah. The report mentioned something called a
large gust factor, a gust factor. Yeah. So basically
it means the difference between those peak wind
gusts and the average sustained wind speed. It
was just huge, much larger than usual. So those
gusts, they packed a real punch. even in areas
that weren't seeing sustained hurricane force
winds. For instance, Augusta, Georgia, they got
slammed with a gust of 71 knots. So even North
Carolina, way up in the Appalachian Mountains,
felt the effects of Helene. They clocked the
highest gust at a mind -blowing 92 knots up on
Mount Mitchell. Oh yeah, that's way up there.
But the high elevation definitely had something
to do with that. And the impacts, they weren't
limited to just those states near the coast.
The report even mentions tropical storm force
winds with gusts over 50 knots being reported
in parts of Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia,
and Kentucky. Wow. So this was a widespread event.
It really shows you just how far reaching Helene's
wind field was, you know, as it moved inland.
Now let's talk about something that's always
a huge concern with hurricanes. Storm surge.
And from what I'm reading in this report, it
sounds like Helene produced a truly catastrophic
surge along Florida's Gulf Coast. Oh, it was
devastating. The Big Bend region of Florida,
particularly from just west of Keaton Beach all
the way through Steinhatchee, it experienced
inundation, like water levels 12 to 16 feet above
ground level. That's insane. It was. The report
really emphasizes how devastating it was for
those small coastal communities. And it's not
like the impacts were limited to that small stretch.
Significant surge in wave action reached as far
south as Naples. Really? Yeah, intacting Campa
Bay, Sarasota, pretty populated areas. And the
report describes some pretty awful scenes. Homes
ripped right off their foundations, moved England
by the sheer force of the water. I mean the power
of that water is just... Mind -boggling. Absolutely.
And the National Weather Service, after the storm,
they did those on -the -ground surveys. And those
surveys, they confirmed just how high that surge
was. Like in Steinhatchie, they found a high
water mark at 16 .1 feet above mean higher high
water. Now, just so you know, mean higher high
water, that's the average height of the highest
tide they see in a particular spot. So this surge
pushed the water way above even those normal
high tides. So unprecedented flooding. Exactly.
And Steinhatchie wasn't alone. Other places along
the Gulf Coast, from Cedar Key down to the Anklot
River, they experienced a substantial surge too,
like six to nine feet above ground level. And
even farther south, Englewood down to Bonita
Beach, even the Florida Keys, saw elevated water
levels. It's amazing how far reaching these impacts
can be. And, you know, Helene's surge didn't
just affect the Florida Gulf Coast. The report
also mentions minor elevated water levels along
the U .S. East Coast, places like Georgia and
South Carolina, and even down in Mexico's Yucatan
Peninsula. Wow. All the way down there. Yeah.
It just shows how a major hurricane can impact.
ocean levels across a huge area. Now let's shift
gears a bit and talk about the rainfall from
Helene. It sounds like Helene dumped an unbelievable
amount of rain and not just near the coast. The
report mentions that Helene interacted with something
called a baroclinic cutoff low. Yeah. And that
led to this really prolonged heavy rainfall stretching
all the way from Florida up into the southern
Appalachians. That interaction, that was key.
A baroclinic cutoff low, think of it like this
like bubble of cold air detached high up in the
atmosphere. And when a tropical system like Helene
moves into one of these things, it gets a boost.
You get a lot more lift in the atmosphere, which
means heavier rain, more prolonged rainfall than
you'd get from the hurricane alone. And what's
important to understand here is that a lot of
these inland areas, they'd already had a significant
amount of rain just before Helene arrived. So
the ground was totally saturated, making flooding
that much more likely. And some of the rainfall
totals were just off the charts, especially in
western North Carolina. 20 to 30 inches of rain.
20 to 30 inches. they mentioned was a mind -blowing
30 .78 inches in Busick. That's over two and
a half feet of rain. Just an incredible amount
of rain in such a short time. There was also
a lot of significant rainfall like 10 to 15 inches
in southwestern Virginia, northwestern South
Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Even the Atlanta
metro area got 12 to 13 inches and the Florida
panhandle up to 14 .39 inches. All this widespread
heavy rain just added to the overall disaster.
Right, so all that rain you can imagine what
it did. major freshwater flooding. It was bad.
The report even mentions record river crests
in several counties in western North Carolina.
With some of those records, they weren't just
broken, they were shattered. Yeah, like the South
Toe River near Silo. Right. It broke its old
record by almost nine feet. 8 .7 feet. You can
only imagine the scale of the flood in there.
And, of course, the flooding led to a lot of
rescues. A lot of them. A lot of people had to
be pulled from dangerous flood waters, especially
in western North Carolina and, you know, also
on the west coast of Florida because of the storm
surge. It really highlights the different kinds
of threats that can come from just one storm.
It's almost too much. And on top of everything
else, Helene spawned tornadoes. So it wasn't
just the wind and the rain, it was also these
smaller but still incredibly dangerous rotating
storms. Yeah, 39 tornadoes in total, 33 while
it was still a tropical cyclone, and then six
more after it had transitioned to a post -tropical
system. That's wild. It's good to hear that most
of them were rated EF0 and EF1, so on the weaker
side. But there was that one EF3 tornado in South
Carolina and one EF2 in North Carolina. Even
those weaker tornadoes can do a lot of damage,
and to have 39 in total, that's a lot for one
storm. It just goes to show you how complex and
unpredictable these systems can be. You've got
all these different hazards coming at you, even
far away from the center of the storm. And now
for the hardest part of the report, I think.
The casualty and damage statistic? The human
cost, yeah. It's a stark reminder. So according
to the report, Helene directly caused at least
175 deaths, and that's across several states.
And sadly, the highest number of those deaths,
85, occurred in North Carolina and the main culprit,
freshwater flooding. Flooding England. It's just
so dangerous. On top of those direct fatalities,
there were also 70 deaths indirectly linked to
Helene. Things like heart attacks during evacuations,
traffic accidents in the storm, or even incidents
that happened during the cleanup. Right. So in
total, 248 deaths related to Helene in the US.
It's just heartbreaking. It is. And at least
117 injuries were reported. And there were also
about 2 ,700 people who had to be rescued from
high water. It's important to remember that about
half of those rescues, they were due to that
storm surge on Florida's west coast. And over
a thousand were from that really bad freshwater
flooding in western North Carolina. And then
there's the financial costs, which is just staggering.
Seventy eight point seven billion dollars. Seventy
eight point seven billion dollars in damages.
That's the estimated total, which puts Helene
among the hostiliest hurricanes to hit the U
.S. seventh when you adjust for inflation to
2024 values. Most of that damage, unsurprisingly,
occurred in Florida. Florida, Georgia, South
Carolina, North Carolina, Eastern Tennessee,
and Southwestern Virginia. It really shows you
just how far -reaching the impacts were. And
the impact on infrastructure was massive, too.
An estimated 7 .4 million customers lost power.
Which, you know, that translates to about 16
.2 million people without electricity. At its
peak, there were about 4 .79 million customers
in the dark. Wow. And Florida, South Carolina,
Georgia, and North Carolina, they were the hardest
hit in terms of those power outages. goes into
detail about the damage to homes and infrastructure
across all those states. You had that destructive
storm surge along the coast, the winds just ripping
through communities, and then of course the flooding.
So widespread and prolonged. Helene was just
a force of nature. So let's talk about the forecasts
and the warnings, because that's obviously a
critical part of this whole story. Thankfully,
it seems like the National Hurricane Center issued
timely warnings for the Northwestern Caribbean
Sea, even when Helene was just starting to form.
Those early warnings are so important. Oh, absolutely.
It gives people the chance to get ready. you
know, before things get really bad. And it looks
like the NHC did a decent job with their track
forecast too. The report says their track forecast
errors were generally on par with or even better
than the average for the previous five years,
particularly those early forecasts. The report
actually notes that the track was more challenging
to predict than usual. Really? So for them to
still be pretty accurate, it's pretty impressive.
And what about the storm surge warnings? Those
had to have been critical considering how devastating
the surge was. You bet. It seems like those watches
and warnings were issued with enough lead time.
So before those tropical storm force winds arrived,
and before the worst of the surge, like in Tampa
Bay, the lead time for the storm surge watch,
it was 60 hours before the winds hit. Wow, 60
hours. And the warning, that was 36 hours before.
And in the Big Bend region, where it hit the
hardest, the lead times were even longer. The
initial storm surge forecast, that did a good
job too, highlighting those areas that would
end up seeing the highest water levels. So good
news there. And in terms of the rainfall forecast,
it sounds like there were some challenges there,
especially with that earlier rain event that
had already separated the ground. It's always
tricky to get that just right. You know, it sounds
like they initially predicted the heaviest rain
a little too far west, but then they updated
the forecast, which is good. But overall, the
Weather Prediction Center, they really emphasize
the threat of inland flooding and with a decent
lead time. They did. They even upgraded the risk
for excessive rainfall to a high risk of full
48 hours before that first flash flood emergency.
That shows you how confident they were in the
severity of the situation. And it looks like
the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration
really went all out with their public communication
efforts too, especially when it came to that
in -length of the threat. Absolutely. That's
so important because it's not just about the
coastal impacts, right? Right. The report talks
about all the communication between the NHC and
emergency managers. tons of briefings to make
sure everyone was on the same page. And the hurricane
liaison team, they did a great job supporting
those evacuation planning efforts along Florida's
west coast. Plus the NHC activated that television
media pool, did a bunch of interviews, both in
English and Spanish, to reach as many people
as possible. Smart move. And of course, they
utilized live streams and social media. Right.
And the Weather Prediction Center and the National
Water Center, they also ramped up their communication
efforts. To make sure everyone knew about those
inland flooding risks. So overall, it seems like
they did a pretty solid job getting the word
out. So to sum all this up, Helene was an incredibly
powerful and really complex storm. It was. And
it had this devastating impact across the southeastern
United States. It did. From those humble beginnings
as a Central American jitter to its rapid intensification
in the Gulf of Mexico. and then it moves so fast
inland, and then you have that catastrophic storm
surge and the flooding that just wouldn't quit.
Helene is a reminder, like a really stark reminder,
of just how destructive these tropical cyclones
can be. They really are. And thankfully, we have
this incredibly thorough report from the National
Oceanic Atmosphere Administration to help us
understand it. So it gives us these really valuable
insights into the characteristics of the storm,
its effects, and its effects on both coastal
and inland communities. So there you have it.
That's Hurricane Helene. Meteorology is a constantly
evolving field, and we're always learning more.
Events like Helene, they just underscore how
crucial continued research is, accurate forecasting,
and of course, effective communication to protect
lives and property when these powerful storms
strike. Absolutely. So if you'd like to explore
specific aspects of Hurricane Helene in more
detail, don't hesitate to reach out. We'd love
to hear from you. And thanks for listening to
Meteorology Matter. Oh, and don't forget, follow
Meteorologist Rob Jones on Instagram, Meteorologist
on TikTok, TV Meteorologist, and on On YouTube,
follow Rob Joan Hurricane, where you can find
the Meteorology Matters podcast playlist. Perfect.
So one last thought for you all. As we reflect
on Hurricane Helene, its journey, its impacts,
what do you see as the biggest challenges for
communities that may face similar threats in
the future, especially when we think about that
combination of coastal surge and that devastating
inland flooding? That's definitely something
to consider. Thanks again for listening.