Unseasonable Floods
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- Visualizations by:
- Horace Mitchell
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- Written by:
- Ellen T. Gray
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- Scientific consulting by:
- George Huffman
- View full credits
A series of winter storms brought more than 20 inches of rainfall to the Midwest and southeastern United States in December 2015. Unseasonable and severe flooding followed throughout both regions. In the Midwest, rainwater swelled the banks of rivers and tributaries that feed the Mississippi River, leading to flooding in Missouri, Illinois, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Mississippi. Alabama, Georgia and other areas in the South were hardest hit by rainstorms that arrived Christmas week. The torrential rains led to massive flooding and declarations of a state of emergency in Alabama and northern Georgia. From space, NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement mission satellites collected data on the amount of rain that fell across the U.S. in December. Watch the video to see an animation of accumulated rainfall created from satellite observations.
For More Information
See NASA.gov
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
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Animator
- Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
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Writer
- Ellen T. Gray (NASA/HQ) [Lead]
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Scientist
- George Huffman (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
Related Pages
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ID: 4418 Visualization
IMERG Rainfall Accumulation over the United States for December 2015
Read moreA series of winter storms brought more than 20 inches of rainfall to the Midwest and southeastern United States in December 2015. Massive flooding followed throughout both the regions.This animation shows the accumulation of rainfall from December's three major storm systems that took place on Dec. 1 through 3, Dec. 13 through 16, and Dec. 21 through 31. The observations are from NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. Red colors indicate accumulate rainfall of 20 inches, yellow show 10-12 inches, green 6-10 inches, and shades of blue 2-6 inches. The extent of the area that drains into the Mississippi River is outlined in black.In the Midwest, rainwater swelled the banks of rivers and tributaries that then feed the Mississippi River, leading to flooding in Missouri, Illinois, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Mississippi. The crest of the Mississippi River travelled downstream through Louisiana toward the Gulf of Mexico the first week of January 2016, passing through New Orleans, which opened the Bonnet Carre Spillway north of the city to prevent flooding.Alabama and Georgia and other areas in the southeast were hardest hit by rainstorms that arrived Christmas week, which led to massive flooding and declarations of a state of emergency in Alabama and northern Georgia. ||
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