Carolina Weather Group

When it comes to the chances another Helene-like storm could hit the Carolinas in the future, it's really a matter of when and not if. Could it be in another 100 years? Another 500 years? Another 1,000 years? Or could a changing climate dramatically increase the reoccurrence of these events? This week on the Carolina Weather Group, Corey Davis, the assistant state climatologist for North Carolina, explains why a 1-in-1000-year event like Helene could happen again much sooner. The widespread flooding washing over – and washing out – towns and roadways after Helene was uncomfortably similar to the scenes in eastern North Carolina following Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence in 2018. And once again, the major city in the region – Wilmington then, Asheville now – had its interstate connections severed by the flooding. In addition to those similar impacts, one way of comparing events on opposite ends of the state is using rainfall return intervals, which frame a specific amount over a certain dur