A storm system drenched South Florida for a third straight day yesterday, flooding neighborhoods, disrupting flights, and forcing road closures. Seven million people, including those in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and Naples, remain under flood watches through tonight.
The National Weather Service issued a rare high risk outlook for excessive rainfall for parts of South Florida, which represents the top level of a four-category scale and occurs on 4% of days each year on average. Such an extreme weather event in the US accounts for more than 80% of flood-related damage and over one-third of flood-related deaths.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) declared a state of emergency for five counties as some areas saw up to 25 inches of rainfall since Tuesday. Roughly an entire average month's rainfall for June fell on Fort Lauderdale in 24 hours alone Wednesday. See photos here.
Separately, the latest El Niño weather pattern, associated with stronger hurricanes in the Pacific (and weaker hurricanes in the Atlantic) as well as drought in the West, is officially over.
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