South Florida's Record-Breaking Rainfall and Airport Closure

A historic downpour in Fort Lauderdale, Florida dropped 88 billion gallons of rain, causing flooding that forced residents to abandon vehicles and scramble to higher ground. The rainfall totals across the county from that downpour amounted to roughly 88 billion gallons, which would equate to 738 billion pounds of moisture, or roughly 370 million tons. The excessive rainfall was a product of slow-moving thunderstorms anchored atop a stalled frontal boundary and fits into a pattern of a warmer, wetter world with higher rainfall rates. The episode easily qualifies as a thousand-year rain event, with reports of up to 25.91 inches at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, obliterating the previous record for wettest calendar day.