The remnants of Hurricane Delta still haven't completely cleared out of the Atlanta metro region yet. It's cloudy outside, and it rained intermittently for most of the morning The current forecast says the rain is over and sunny days are expected next week, but we'll wait and see what Mother Nature has to say about it.
Unsurprisingly, all that rain resulting in flash flooding yesterday. Peachtree Creek jumped its banks and passed the minor flood stage to rise to the major flood stage. With all of the urban pavement that covers the ground, there's nowhere for the rain to infiltrate, so it all runs overland and through the storm sewers to the Chattahoochee River and its tributaries, like Peachtree and Tanyard Creeks. Krog Tunnel (above), which passes under CSX railroad tracks, is prone to flooding under even light rain, and reportedly had over three feet of water at times yesterday.
According to the National Weather Service, over 4½ inches of rain fell yesterday, breaking the record for the day (set in 2018) by over an inch.
Like warm weather and an increased number of wildfires, more intense and heavier rainstorms are another effect of anthropogenic global climate change. These storms are going to keep coming, even if we start making major adjustments to our carbon footprint now.
So why bother reducing carbon emissions if we're going to pay the price anyway?, I ask rhetorically. Because, I answer myself, if we don't reduce the emissions, these intense rain events will be the least of our problems - things can, and if we don't start acting soon, will, get worse.
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