Death Toll 30 and Climbing.... Day of Search and Rescue for Victims Across Multiple States - The Name Helene Will Be Retired, It's Not Even a Question. Rocky Mount Has Destructive Tornado from Helene After Having a Deadly Tornado From TS Debby. Can't Make 2024 Up...

 

The scope and size of Helene is wild.

Boggles the mind.

Yet here in NC we have wild weather.

Tornadoes formed not far from here.

Heavy rains blasted through..

Random strong gusts than quiet.

See the dark orange cells lined up.

Producing tornadoes.

But we do have a flood warning.

So I'm under the orange and magenta ...

Sporadic cells still spinning thru here.

Though for the most part it's quiet now.

I always say weather is locational, and with regard to Hurricane Helene whose "center" is no deep inland to my West and yet her weather is dumping torrential rains in the mountains of North Carolina and the line that went through here produced a tornado where several people are seriously injured and 14 buildings were destroyed in nearby Rocky Mount. Trees are down in the Raleigh Durham area on random roads, especially trees damaged and weakened by Tropical Storm Debby and he No Name Storm recently. We are in the flow for weather trouble. 

Helene is in Kentucky.

Her remnant weather is in North Carolina.

Moving up into the Virginias.

We all know that Helene made landfall in the Big Bend, not far from Perry that's become a hurricane system  magnent of late. Do I really have to mention there's another system possibly forming from the CAG?  Maybe but it's too soon to be sure where that system will go. We have ideas. GFS takes it to its favorite party city of New Orleans and nearby Biloxi and every town in between. The Canadian aims there then slides over to an area near Big Bend, again. ICON has something in the BOC. It's really too soon to tell, the whole environment is sort of chaotic and in a day or two we can talk on the next possible hurricane.

I'm being honest, my mind is mush and I've been so busy telling relatives "I'm fine, really..." and watching the local weather drama it's hard to even sit and take the whole scope of Helene in ... 

Valdosta got slammed a second year in a row, but this time stronger than Idalia.  Inland Georgia, far from the GOM and the Atlantic Ocean.

I don't know the various data as there is too much of it and I have serious weather in the area as I type this so keeping this short. 

I'll do an update and a look back at Helene on Sunday. She made landfall as a Category 4 Hurricane, crazy low pressure yet her winds were not felt much on ground level by official sources. Strong winds, but not what we expected to see and yet her flooding that carried high expectations was exceeded by most expectations. I said this over and over, it's not about the exact strong wind with Helene moving fast like a hit and run accident in the Big Bend, but the flooding and storm surge was on historic levels and the flooding from rainfall up in the mountains or many places with elevation that are hilly such as Atlanta has been of epic proportions. Rescue crews are going from house to house in places in the Atlanta area currently and we just learned someone died in Charlotte when a tree fell on their home. 

Tropical Storm Debby did this part of NC

There was a deadly Tornado in Rocky Mount.

Tropical Storm Debby Damage above.

Rocky Mount Tornado from Helene below.

2024 will be remembered in Rocky Mount...

Death was an unpopular guest that arrived with Hurricane Helene. Yes, because it was a Category 4 Hurricane but more so because it's footprint went across all of Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginias and it's naked center is now residing in Tennesee and. Kentucky. And yet..... she's still raining here in North Carolina. There is historic flooding in Asheville and by the way all of that water in the swollen rivers will end up downstream with river flooding all the way down towards the coast where towns were recently flooded from the No Name Storm. I'm tired. The No Name Storm should have been Helene and this should have been Isaac but I don't get a vote in naming, just saying as I see it from going through it.

I'll be back Sunday.  This is my life today and I have people coming for dinner and another few relatives to call back to tell them "the flooding was in Asheville and Rocky Mount got the tornado that missed us" and I'm going to literally rest tomorrow. 

Remember this when I say it...the hurricane season is NOT over, it's not over and we have a long way to go before we can sleep without worrying on more CAG hurricanes from the SW Caribbean and  named storms that form close in from waves or decaying frontal boundaries that begin spinning.

Hurricane Helene has become Super Storm Helene as she's a disaster currently beyone measure.

2 points

1. I said that when the MDR shut down that the SW Caribbean would deliver large, deadly hurricanes and this was what I meant. I said it again and again the last few months while people bickered about the problems with African Waves and a dead MDR. I said, wait the SW Carib will deliver and it did. Sadly.

2. I said over and over on X and it's hard to really understand that "yes this will make landfall as a Major Hurricane" but the attention should be to the larger flooding catastrophy from storm surge to river flooding to rainfall flooding to flash flooding up in the mountains after landfall in Florida. 

Yes, the barometer was dropping like a rock and yet her winds were not intensifying as most "normal" hurricanes do and she had problems almost to the end as a Cat 4 closing off her eye and that's not something "normal" as normally by the time we have a 80 MPH hurricane everyone's screaming "I see an eye, I see an eye!!" and yet we had 130 MPH winds, barometric pressure that showed an even stronger hurricane and yet winds were not intensifying until the very end as if it was some 2 Minute Drill to win a football game and go into the Playoffs. 

Helene won the honor of being retired, her name will be retired trust me.

Helene won the honor of being a very strange, huge hurricane that brought danger, death and destruction across multiple states and it will take a very long time to even know how many people died and how much damage there was and I say that as people were on sailboats out on Tampa Bay where one man and his dog were rescued during the storm by the Coast Guard.  Hard to even explain most of what we have seen and yes, there's another possible hurricane on the way and the season is far from over. 

Remember I said "backloaded season" and this is the backloaded hurricane season I promised we would have... sorry just some things you know and I know hurricanes

Prayers for everyone who lost family members and friends, homes or businesses and possibly a bit of sanity as Helene destroyed much in her path from trees to homes to highways to roads washed out and most of all she destroyed the sanity of many people and it will take a long time to recover from the size and scope of this tragedy. It's a lot to process, even for me here safely in Raleigh processing that in 2024 we have had a Tropical Storm, a No Name Storm and Helene's leftovers and I don't think we are done yet.

BobbiStorm

@bobbistorm on Twitter 

Twitter mostly weather and Insta whatever.

Ps...Sorry for any typos.........I just can't really. I'll edit later and update on the trouble in the tropics that might be developing on Sunday.