Related: Asheville is 400 miles from where Helene made landfall at an elevation of > 2,000’. It’s not like “hurricane-associated flooding” was at the top of folks’ lists of potential hazards.
High-risk zone? Asheville is at an elevation of over 2,000’ and is at least 240 miles (& Perry, Florida, where Helene came ashore, is almost 400 miles from Asheville) from the ocean. It’s pretty clear that impacts are hard to predict & aren’t just a “coastal” issue.
Helene’s Cat 4 landfall gives the U.S. a record eight Cat 4 or Cat 5 Atlantic hurricane landfalls in the past eight years (2017-2024), seven of them being continental U.S. landfalls. That’s as many Cat 4 and 5 landfalls as occurred in the prior 57 years.
It looks like storm surge is defined as level of flooding over “normally dry ground.” I think that you’re probably right wrt mean higher-high water - areas above MHHW are “normally dry” - but it could be a bit higher, e.g., highest astronomical tide over xx yrs. ocean.weather.gov/defining_sto...
NOAA just sent out a "rare news release" urging media to focus the public's attention on Hurricane Helene's potential to cause widespread flooding "hundreds of miles inland," including "the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta and western North Carolina, including Asheville."NOAA just sent out a "rare news release" urging media to focus the public's attention on Hurricane Helene's potential to cause widespread flooding "hundreds of miles inland," including "the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta and western North Carolina, including Asheville."
I might remember a few when prompted, but I also got plenty of them wrong…. Please bring them back - they were so much fun!