Global warming has increased the likelihood of more massive, sluggish storms like Florence, capable of dropping record amounts of rain and causing the type of catastrophic flooding that crippled North and South Carolina this week, experts said.
Most meteorologists agree that climate change can increase the volume of water vapor stored within weather systems. More water vapor means more rain, especially when the storm is a crawler like Florence, which slowed to about 2 mph (1.6 kph) after slamming into the North Carolina coast.
When storms such as Harvey, which struck Texas last year, and Florence come to a virtual stall, a deluge of rain can fall in the matter of days, equal to what an area typically sees in a year, they said.