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See the path of destruction left by a major flood in historic downtown Ellicott City, Maryland. Rushing waters took the lives of two people after tearing away streets and ripping apart buildings.
About 180 cars were removed from downtown Ellicott City, Md., after the severe flooding Saturday, July 30, 2016. This is the scene on Monday, Aug. 1, 2016.(Photo: Nikki Burdine, WUSA-TV, Washington)
The massive rainfall that caused a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>devastating flash flood in Ellicott City, Md., last weekend was a rare 1-in-1,000-year event that has been happening with unprecedented frequency<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in recent years, meteorologists said.
The storm, which killed two people, dumped 6.5 inches of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>rain on Ellicott City in only about 3 hours, with 5.5 inches falling in just 90 minutes, the National Weather Service said. One nearby spot recorded 8.22 inches, amounts that weather service meteorologist Greg Carbin called "off the charts."
Ellicott City picked up almost twice its monthly average rainfall of 3.5 inches Saturday night.
A<span style="color: Red;">*</span>1-in-1,000-year rain event<span style="color: Red;">*</span>is a statistical way of expressing the probability of such a massive rainfall occurring<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in any given year in a given location, according to the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>National Center for Environmental Information, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In other words, it had a 1 in 1,000 chance of occurring in Ellicott City in any year.
Flooding destroyed parts of Ellicott City, Md. overnight.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: WUSA)
USA TODAY
Flash flood kills 2, devastates Maryland city's historic downtown
This is at least the ninth "1-in-1,000" year rain event across the United States<span style="color: Red;">*</span>since 2010, and the third this year. Flooding in Houston in April killed eight<span style="color: Red;">*</span>people. And in June, 23 died in a in West Virginia flood caused by heavy rain.
So many "1-in-1,000 year" rainfalls appear unprecedented.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"The number of these type of events has seemingly become more pronounced in recent years," meteorologist Steve Bowen of a global reinsurance firm<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Aon Benfield<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said in a tweet Monday.
The world record for a one-minute rainfall happened in Maryland 60 years ago, according to the World Meteorological Organization.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>On July 4, 1956, 1.23 inches of rain fell in Unionville, Md., in the state's Eastern Shore region.
The<span style="color: Red;">*</span>meteorological cause of Ellicott City's<span style="color: Red;">*</span>epic<span style="color: Red;">*</span>flood was complex, a mixture of high humidity, unstable air, southerly wind flow, a nearby warm<span style="color: Red;">*</span>front and other factors<span style="color: Red;">*</span>as noted by The Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang.
The small town's main street turned into a raging river, carrying away<span style="color: Red;">*</span>cars and other debris and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>forcing dramatic rescues<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of people trapped in the flood. The two victims were found early Sunday.
The flood also tore away portions of the street and many storefronts, leaving the quaint shopping district in a shambles.
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Is man-made<span style="color: Red;">*</span>climate change a contributing factor? Seventy-one percent<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>heavy rain events have increased in the northeastern U.S. (including Maryland) between 1958 and 2012, according to the National Climate Assessment.
But extreme rainfall is not necessarily<span style="color: Red;">*</span>one of the weather events that can be linked to climate change with a high level of confidence, according to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the most comprehensive report on the subject<span style="color: Red;">*</span>earlier this year.
The report said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>link can be made with a "moderate" amount of confidence, since a warmer atmosphere could lead to higher evaporation rates, which makes more water vapor available to fuel rain (and snow) storms.
Additionally, other "human-caused" factors have to do with land use and storm water management,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>as meteorologist Marshall Shepherd points out in Forbes. He said there are more "urbanized impervious surfaces" such as asphalt and concrete that increase the water that runs off into streams, lakes and rivers.
Shepherd also said that outdated storm water management systems are more easily overwhelmed when these extreme rainfall events occur.
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