Sara doused southeast US ahead of coldest air so far this season
Sara continued to cause trouble in the form of heavy rain and localized flooding along the United States eastern Gulf coast into midweek. But, Sara will have some positive impacts as well.
The system that was Tropical Rainstorm Sara has merged with a cold front, sweeping east across the Florida Panhandle.
While the United States is likely to dodge Sara's worst, what's left of the tropical rainstorm over the Gulf of Mexico triggered drenching rain and localized urban flooding in part of the Southeast into midweek, AccuWeather meteorologists warned. This will be accompanied by a cold front that will bring the chilliest air of the season so far across the Southeast.
The trip across Central America and southeastern Mexico all but shredded Sara this past weekend. Feet of rain poured down in Honduras, triggering deadly flash flooding and mudslides that destroyed homes and left tens of thousands seeking shelter.
This image of the Gulf of Mexico was captured on Tuesday morning, Nov. 19, 2024. Very faint banding of the cloud structure remained from Sara (center of image). Sara's showers and thunderstorms were merging with the same from an approaching cold front. (AccuWeather enhanced RealVue™ Satellite).
A batch of showers and thunderstorms is all that remains of Sara, but that moisture contributed to torrential downpours along the Gulf coast of the U.S. and fueled soaking rain over the interior Southeast. Cool waters compared to a few weeks ago over the northern Gulf of Mexico prevented tropical storm regeneration.
Since Monday night, 2 inches of rain have poured down on New Orleans.
In some cases, such as over the interior Southeast, the rain is welcome due to prevailing dry conditions since Helene's wrath in late September. The rain will help to ease the risk of brush fires.
For example, before Tuesday, there had only been about 1 inch of rain around Atlanta since Sept. 28, 18% of the historical average of around 6 inches. Rainfall in Mobile, Alabama, has only been about one-third of the historical average since the official start of fall.
However, in a few cases, such as in urban areas and in poor drainage spots on the highways, enough rain can pour down quickly and lead to flooding.
Even though the rain will taper down before reaching Tampa, there could still be enough downpours to lead to brief street flooding. Much of the rain that fell since late September (about 17 inches) was due to Hurricane Milton.
Any gusty winds associated with Sara will generally be confined to the immediate coast and may be accompanied by thunderstorms. Problems due to winds from Sara are likely to be limited.
A cold front assisting with Sara's showers and thunderstorms will continue to move along and is forecast to clear South Florida and the Keys by later Thursday.
In the front's wake, the chilliest air of the season so far will sweep across the Southeastern states. Gusty winds will add to the chill and can lead to frosts at night for the second half of the week.
Over the Florida Peninsula, much lower humidity is in store after what has been a warm and humid autumn.
This sweep of chilly air will effectively end tropical threats on the U.S. mainland for the remainder of the hurricane season.
Sara's early track spared Florida from another hurricane strike
Impacts from Sara in the U.S. will likely be a drop in the bucket compared to what could have evolved this week, if the storm took a more northerly track over the Caribbean.
This GOES-East GeoGolor satellite image taken Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, at 1:03 p.m. EST and provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), shows Tropical Storm Sara. (CIRA/NOAA via AP)
If the center of Sara managed to stay away from the Central American coast late last week, warm waters and other conditions likely would have led to rapid intensification and a more direct northward track that would have taken a powerful hurricane into Florida.
Instead, one of the scenarios that AccuWeather mentioned as an alternative was realized—the center of Sara consolidated very close to the coast of Central America. This led to significant land interaction that limited its peak intensity to a tropical storm. However, the result was deadly and devastating rainfall, with Honduras being one of the hardest-hit countries.
An Aerial view shows the Suyapa neighborhood, partially flooded by the Ulúa River's overflow after Tropical Storm Sara, in Potrerillos, Honduras, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
Concerns for either scenario were so great that AccuWeather's team of meteorologists dubbed it a tropical rainstorm well ahead of the National Hurricane Center's potential tropical cyclone designation to raise public awareness.
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