Tropical Storm Sara formed Thursday afternoon just 50 miles east of Honduras, drifting slowly along the country’s northern coast on Friday, spreading torrential rainfall across not only Honduras, but through Belize, El Salvador, eastern Guatemala, western Nicaragua, and eastern portions of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.
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Rainfall totals nearing 40 inches are forecast in northern Honduras from Sara, with concerns of widespread, potentially catastrophic flash flooding and mudslides through the weekend.
As of 7 a.m. ET Friday, Golosón International Airport on the west side of La Ceiba, a port city in northern Honduras, had recorded nearly 22 inches of rain (556 mm) over the past 24 hours alone, an extreme rate of rainfall only to be added to in the days ahead.
For perspective, officially only eight U.S. states have ever recorded 22 inches or more rainfall in a 24-hour period, according to NOAA’s State Climate Extremes Committee.
Florida’s all-time 24-hour rainfall record occurred from November 11-12, 1980, when the outer edge of Hurricane Jeanne – a rare Gulf hurricane – flooded Key West with 23.28 inches of rain, though unofficially 25.91 inches of rain fell in a 24-hour period at a WeatherSTEM station near Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport during the historic April 12, 2023 floods.
Though Sara could loiter just offshore the next few days, it’s expected to eventually move inland and dissipate over southern Mexico before making it into the Gulf of Mexico.
Destructive U.S. Hurricane Season draws to a close
Though the remnants of Sara will get swept up in a cold front headed to Florida for the middle of next week, the system isn’t expected to redevelop over the Gulf.
Sara’s remnants could still contribute to a stronger-than-normal cold front passage late Tuesday and Wednesday, enhancing the severe weather and tornado threat for north and west-central Florida.
After five U.S. hurricane landfalls – only the 7th year in the 174-year period of record with as many U.S. hurricanes – causing more than $100 billion in estimated damages and hundreds of fatalities – largely from Hurricane Helene’s catastrophic inland flooding – behind Sara we’ll finally be able to say good riddance to the deadly and destructive 2024 hurricane season here in the U.S.
Though we can’t rule out a stray storm somewhere in the Atlantic before the official end of the season on November 30th, we don’t anticipate any additional U.S. threats, good news we can all use after a long and difficult hurricane season.
