Heavy flooding hits parts of South Florida after severe rains (2024)

Numerous flash flood warnings had been in effect across different parts of South Florida earlier Wednesday evening, according to Miami’s National Weather Service office, coupled with a severe thunderstorm warning.

Double-digit rain totals were being realized across a populous stretch of South Florida amid a days-long torrential rainstorm that will bring downpours through Friday. Some weather stations near Hollywood showed nearly a foot of rain had fallen Wednesday alone. The storm’s total rainfall may exceed 18 inches in spots.

Stormwater pumps rumbled to life to help push the rainwater out to sea, but they couldn’t drain fast enough to avoid flooding streets and airport tarmacs. Pools of water left low-lying parts of downtown Miami and Brickell impassable. And though the sun wouldn’t set for another three hours, drivers flicked on their headlights and hazards as they warily navigated the flooded streets.

On Wednesday evening, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) declared a state of emergency for a slew of counties — including Miami-Dade, Broward, Lee, Collier and Sarasota — noting that upcoming rainy conditions “will further exacerbate ongoing flood conditions over already impacted and vulnerable metropolitan areas.”

The torrential downpour has led to hundreds of flight delays and cancellations across South Florida.

As of 4:50 p.m., 221 flights had been canceled and 165 delayed at Miami International Airport — accounting for 53 percent of all the flights scheduled for Wednesday, Greg Chin, a spokesperson for the Miami-Dade Aviation Department, told The Washington Post. The airport is also leading the nation in flight complications, per FlightAware’s MiseryMap. According to the flight tracking platform, flights departing from Miami are facing almost hour-long delays, while inbound flights have been delayed by an average of 4½ hours.

Some 30 miles north at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, flooding around terminals and runways resulted in the Federal Aviation Administration “slowing flights into and out” of the airport, said Sam Lichtman, a spokesperson for the agency.

Arlene Satchell, the Broward County Aviation Department’s public information officer, said a total of 219 flights coming in and out of the Fort Lauderdale airport were canceled — or about a third of Wednesday’s flights. An additional 69 flights experienced delays. The affected places include Boston; Toronto; Medellín, Colombia; and Haiti. According to FlightAware, inbound flights have been delayed at their point of origin for more than seven hours on average.

Most of the impacts to flights were due to Florida’s bad weather, Satchell said. However, “other factors such as airline operational, aircraft issues and/or federal air space traffic management initiatives may also be contributing reasons.”

Flood watches cover South Florida, including Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Fort Myers and Naples, and have been extended through Thursday evening.

A dire flash flood emergency was issued for Dania Beach and Hollywood during the late afternoon hours where 6 to 10 inches of rain had already fallen. Another 3 to 7 inches was anticipated as a band of slow-moving torrential downpours rode west to east along Alligator Alley, or Interstate 75. It was set to expire at 5 p.m. Eastern.

A personal weather station in Hollywood Beach, had tallied 11.59 inches of rain in five hours’ time, with several others logging 11.11 inches.

Through 5:40 p.m., 8.61 inches had fallen at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. That’s the third-wettest day on record at the airport, and it’s the all-time June record. If the airport makes it to 10.22 inches, then Wednesday’s rainfall may claim the second-place spot.

Fort Lauderdale also had its sixth-wettest hour on record between 1 and 2 p.m. Wednesday, when 2.41 inches fell.

Another weather station in Hollywood was up to 11.6 inches for the calendar day, 11.19 of which came down in just six hours. Statistically, that’s an event that should happen on average once every 100 to 200 years.

It’s been just over a year since catastrophic and unprecedented flooding dumped 22.5 inches of rain on the airport on April 12, 2023, and forced its closure.

Increased rainfall rates and more extreme flooding events are strongly linked to human-induced climate change. A warmer world is a wetter world by virtue of the fact that warm air can hold, and transport, more moisture. For every degree the air temperature warms, the air can hold more moisture.

Even though hourly record-keeping dates back to 1973 at Fort Lauderdale International, seven of the wettest hours on record have occurred in the past 10 years, and all have occurred since 2003.

At Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, 3.93 inches fell in a single hour between 7 and 8 p.m. Tuesday, the highest one-hour rain total observed there since hourly observations began in 1972. Some locations saw 8 inches in three hours’ time, an event that on average has just a 0.1 percent chance of happening in any given year.

Downtown Sarasota was virtually impassible for a time during the height of the rainfall, which left streets and intersections submerged as water lapped at area businesses. Some 9.15 inches of rain had been reported at the IMG Academy in nearby Bradenton to start the day.

The same storm system could even acquire some marginal tropical characteristics and is being monitored by the National Hurricane Center. It’s unlikely to develop but is a sign that the oceans are heating up, and it won’t be long before the atmosphere becomes conducive to the formation of tropical storms and hurricanes. In the unlikely event the system does mature, which the Hurricane Center estimates has only a 20 percent likelihood, it would be given the name Alberto.

The heaviest rain was concentrated in a west to east zone along Alligator Alley, or Interstate 75. Some rural locations had exceeded 15 inches by 5:30 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday. Here’s a roundup of 72 hour totals; note that, in the greater Miami-Fort Lauderdale area, most fell just on Wednesday:

In addition, multiple tornado warnings were issued Wednesday morning as a few thunderstorms acquired rotation, probably because of spin in the vicinity of a stalled front over the area. One warning was for a “confirmed tornado” that was approaching Alligator Alley, the main west-east highway between Naples and Fort Lauderdale that bisects the Everglades. Radar confirmed debris lofted by the tornado. Another tornado warning was issued for a second storm shortly thereafter; that storm passed east of the Miccosukee Service Plaza.

A third warning, which was posted for 10:32 a.m., covered a storm in Martin County just south of Port St. Lucie that was also capable of producing a tornado. The National Weather Service was planning to investigate a possible tornado touchdown with that cell in Hobe Sound. A few additional tornado warnings may be issued before the event winds down Friday.

The showers and storms will continue into late Friday, primarily south of a line from Tampa to the Space Coast. By Saturday, storms will become more scattered — typical of summer afternoons in the Sunshine State, though the remnant front may act as a focal mechanism for greater storm coverage.

That’s around the time the low-pressure system will pull northeast into the Northwest Atlantic, and the downpours over South Florida will relent. The surface low may acquire subtropical characteristics as it moves over the warm waters of the Gulf Stream.