SCIENTIST: HURRICANE HARVEY RAIN WAS INDEED ‘BIBLICAL’

When Hurricane Harvey dropped 60 inches of rain on Houston in August, some described the storm as “biblical.” One of America’s leading hurricane scientists has now sharpened that assessment.

“By the standards of the average climate during 1981-2000,” MIT’s Kerry Emanuel writes in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “Harvey’s rainfall in Houston was ‘biblical’ in the sense that it likely occurred around once since the Old Testament was written.”

Emanuel’s analysis attempts to answer a series of questions critical to recovery and rebuilding in Houston and elsewhere. Climate scientists continue to project that as the century goes on, hotter seas and more humid air are likely to make tropical storms more intense.