Most of my meteorologist friends and I have been watching the progression of Tropical Storm Debby today as it moved north over warmer water and developed a more robust central circulation. The winds grew stronger and the central pressure dropped. Impacts such as storm surge and heavy rains have been occurring on the western side of the Florida Peninsula and the rain shield ahead of Debby has already crossed well into Georgia and will keep moving north over the night. No matter where Debby goes after that, it is likely to bring heavy rain and some gusty winds to southeastern Georgia and then into South Carolina and eventually North Carolina too, although the path is not easy to predict at this point.
My colleague Dr. Marshall Shepherd of UGA, the Director of the Atmospheric Sciences program there, wrote a Forbes article today about how the heavy rain that is expected will be catastrophic in its impacts on communities in the region where Debby creeps along. Many places may experience rainfall in amounts they have never seen before and will not know how to respond to the problems associated with this. You can read his article here for another meteorologist’s take on the situation.
