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Environment
Mathew Barlow, Professor of Climate Science, UMass Lowell

Tropical Storm Debby stalls along the Carolinas, bringing days of heavy rain and flooding – a climate scientist explains why

Firefighters in Savannah, Ga., carry food to residents in a neighborhood cut off by Tropical Storm Debby's floodwater on Aug. 6, 2024. AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton

Tropical Storm Debby was moving so slowly, Olympians could have outrun it as it moved across the Southeast in early August 2024. That gave its rainfall time to deluge cities and farms over large parts of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. More than a foot of rain had fallen in some areas by early Aug. 7, 2024, with more days of rain forecast there and into the Northeast.

Mathew Barlow, a climate scientist at UMass Lowell, explains how storms like Debby pick up so much moisture, what can cause them to slow or stall, and what climate change has to do with it.

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