Major flooding hits South Florida, inundates Fort Lauderdale
A slow moving low and stalled boundary brought copious amounts of rain to South Florida Wednesday. The system sparked supercell thunderstorms, prompting tornado warnings and flash flood emergencies
Heavy rain pounded South Florida on Wednesday, inundating places like Fort Lauderdale and leaving behind flooded streets and stranded cars. A flash flood emergency — the highest level of flood warning — was issued for South Florida, but was expired early Thursday morning.
"This is a PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION," the U.S. National Weather Service warned. "Move to higher ground now! This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation. Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order."
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The Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport experienced flight delays and was eventually shut down due to the severe weather. It was expected to be closed until at least noon on Thursday. Nearly 400 flights were impacted.
A low pressure system in the Gulf of Mexico and an associated boundary is slowly sliding north across the Gulf states, including Florida.
"A supercell thunderstorm is what stalled over the Fort Lauderdale area prompting tornado warnings and the flash flood emergencies on Wednesday," says Kelly Sonnenburg, a meteorologist at The Weather Network. "Rainfall rates of more than 3 inches (76 mm) per hour were recorded late Wednesday."
Preliminary rainfall totals of 14-25+ inches (350-600+ mm) have been reported.
"It's extremely rare. That is an astronomical amount of rainfall," Miami NWS meteorologist Shawn Bhatti told Reuters News.
About 2 million people in Broward County were under a flood warning, with parts of Florida's Atlantic Coast north of Miami already seeing 20+ inches (500 mm) over the last few days.
No injuries or deaths have been reported.
WATCH: 'Life threatening' flash floods cause chaos at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport
More rain is forecast for the region on Thursday, and while it won't be nearly as significant as what fell on Wednesday, it will still complicate clean-up efforts and result in additional flooding.
Here's a closer look at what's being deemed as a "1-in-1000 year" rainfall event.
WATCH: Flash flood emergency issued in Fort Lauderdale after storm drops 600+ mm of rain
Thumbnail image courtesy: Ana Cristina Marquez - Fort Lauderdale, Florida
With files from Reuters