It’s hard to believe it’s already been one year since Hurricane Helene tore across Georgia and South Carolina. For many across the CSRA, the memories of that night are still vivid: howling winds, pounding rain, and falling trees.
But Helene’s story in our region actually began before the storm ever made landfall.
In the day leading up to Helene, a “predecessor rain event” drenched the CSRA. Think of it as a firehose of tropical moisture, funneled northward by Helene and colliding with a stalled front. The result: relentless downpours that left our clay soil completely saturated.
That mattered. Pine and oak trees that define our landscape were left rooted in soft, unstable ground. When Helene’s powerful winds arrived, the stage was set for widespread uprooting and destruction.
Now, in the days leading up to the event, forecasts kept Helene’s center tracking west of Augusta, with the Atlanta metro expected to bear the brunt. But in the final hours, the storm shifted.
Here’s why: an upper-level low spinning to Helene’s west pulled the storm, while a strong Bermuda High over the Atlantic acted as a block on the other side. That tug-of-war forced the storm to angle farther north.
Atlanta ended up on the storm’s weaker western side, where flooding rain was the main concern. Augusta and the CSRA, however, were shoved into the storm’s most violent quadrant with devastating consequences.
And take a look at the radar from that night. See these tight little spin-ups within the rainbands? Those are called mesovortices, tiny, powerful low-pressure centers embedded inside the storm. While Helene’s general winds were near 70 miles per hour, a mesovortex could add another 30 or 40 in just seconds. That’s what produced the tornado-like damage and the freight-train sound so many of us remember.
One year later, we remember not just the storm’s destruction, but the way the CSRA came together. Neighbors helped neighbors, and the lessons learned are shaping how we prepare for the next big one.
Do you have a weather-related topic that you’d like to learn the science behind? Submit your ideas to mhyatt@wjbf.com.
