On the heels of Tropical Depression Chantal, climatologists are warning that storms like it could become more common.
While it wasn’t the strongest system by wind speed, Chantal dropped massive amounts of rain in places that aren’t used to seeing it.
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“What we’ve learned from Chantal is that no matter how strong a storm is, what its winds look like, or even when it’s classified as, we can see this threat of heavy rain anywhere in the state from any sort of tropical system,” said Assistant State Climatologist Corey Davis.
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Davis said recent tropical systems in North Carolina are behaving differently than they used to. More are taking on the characteristics of severe thunderstorms, unleashing intense rainfall.
“What was so surprising with this storm is that not only did it end up bringing big rainfall totals, but those totals came very far inland, hundreds of miles away from the coast,” he said. “Even in some of our big hurricanes, we haven’t really seen amounts like that.”
That shift in behavior means North Carolinians can’t afford to ignore these systems. While Davis said you may not have paid attention to the impacts of a tropical storm in the past, you may want to pay attention going forward.
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"I think that will be a big messaging focus, trying to make sure that people don't just tune out a storm like this. [They need to] pay attention to that local threat of heavy rain and flooding," he said.
WRAL meteorologist Kat Campbell said there is a growing toll this year is taking as people clean up the damage from Chantal.
“Last year we had 568 reports of damage. This year, we are just over halfway through the year, and we’ve already surpassed that number. We’ve had 574 reports of damage.”
Chantal is just the latest storm to leave its mark, but experts say it likely won’t be the last.