Weather question

[Cuzzin]

We were recently hit by the South Carolina flood and I had a question about weather. So we have always had hurricanes that came close to our coastline, what makes this one so different that it completely flooded our towns? How does that work, how do we just get soo much water this time that almost every dam and shit breaks? I know hurricanes have different wind categories that tell there power apart. But where does the water changes come into play. What happened? I have never seen the things ive seen this past week here. I just wanna know what made this so much stronger without us even having a hurricane make landfall?

[Mistame]

We were recently hit by the South Carolina flood and I had a question about weather. So we have always had hurricanes that came close to our coastline, what makes this one so different that it completely flooded our towns? How does that work, how do we just get soo much water this time that almost every dam and shit breaks? I know hurricanes have different wind categories that tell there power apart. But where does the water changes come into play. What happened? I have never seen the things ive seen this past week here. I just wanna know what made this so much stronger without us even having a hurricane make landfall?

Rain from areas upstream combined with ocean surges (big "waves" that increase the water level in an area) from the storm.

[Alydael]

So many factors affect flooding and weather that it is more complicated than trying to pin down a single source. Different elements came together at the "right" (actually wrong) time to result in the immense damage. Luckily, it doesn't happen often.

Just an aside- storms tend to weaken when they make landfall. They are fed by the water- so once they go over land- they lose their power source and steadily start to decline. The most dangerous storms stay just far enough off shore that they can maintain their power while still affecting the land.

[Cuzzin]

Rain from areas upstream combined with ocean surges (big "waves" that increase the water level in an area) from the storm.

I mean I get basic concepts its just wierd that this didnt happen any other time

[Sinndra]

"Perfect Storm" concept. a lot of factors just happened at such a unique time, mostly by coincidence, that it caused a great impact on your region. something that happens once every 1000 yrs or so.

[Cuzzin]

It's less to do with the hurricane and more about the massive low pressure area around north Florida. The low was sucking the moisture away from the hurricane. They were calling it a "fire hose" of moisture, or atmospheric river. Basically, if that low wasn't there, things on the east coast would have been pretty calm, considering the hurricane never really came close to the coast.

Video below to show you. It's mesmerizing and scary at the same time.

Wow that was pretty amazing it was like that hurricane was shooting a water gun right at us