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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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- Fort Lauderdale saw heavy rainfall on Wednesday, causing flash floods.
- The Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport reportedly had more than 22 inches of rain between 3 p.m. and 10 p.m.
- Meteorologist Bob Henson said that amounted to a third of the city's annual rainfall.
- The airport suspended flights on Wednesday and is expected to remain closed until 12 p.m. on Thursday.
Fort Lauderdale reportedly saw a third of its annual rainfall in a matter of hours on Wednesday.
Torrential rain caused widespread flooding in the region and the closure of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
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Video posted on social media showed the airport's flooded runway and tarmac and cars submerged on flooded streets.
According to Fox59 meteorologist Tucker Antico, the airport saw 22.59 inches of rainfall between 3 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Bob Henson, a meteorologist and writer with Yale Climate Connections, pointed out that this would mean the city got a third of its annual rainfall in just seven hours.
"The annual average rainfall at FLL (1991-2020) is 68.77". So the city apparently got about 1/3 of its annual rainfall in seven hours today," Henson wrote in a tweet.
"Desert climates can sometimes do this (rarely), but it's astonishing to see it happen in a moist climate like [South Florida's]."
In another tweet, Henson noted that "extreme rain events are one of the best-established signs of climate change."
Henson told Newsweek: "What we saw on Wednesday was an extremely intense, extremely localized thunderstorm complex that happened to park for hours right atop one of the bigger airports in the United States.
"Such events are rare, but we do know that extreme rains are tending to becoming even more extreme in our warming atmosphere."
The National Weather Service said preliminary estimates indicated the Fort Lauderdale area had received more than 25 inches of rainfall over a 24-hour period.
A flood watch remains in effect for Broward County, where Fort Lauderdale is located, and metro and coastal Miami-Dade County through 8 p.m.
"More rain and severe weather possible today as scattered showers and t-storms develop late this morning through the early evening across portions of the East Coast," tweeted the NWS office in Miami.
"Localized flooding, strong winds, small hail and a few tornadoes all possible... With already saturated grounds and flooding due to recent rain, additional rainfall expected today may lead to localized flooding concerns."
In a statement released at 12:30 a.m. on Thursday, the city of Fort Lauderdale said the city's Emergency Operations Center has been activated.
"Fire Rescue and Police continue to answer calls for service and are doing their best to navigate through the flooded streets," it said.
"City facilities will be closed to the public tomorrow, as we will be focusing on emergency operations and recovery."
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Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is expected to remain closed to flight activity until at least 12 p.m. on Thursday, the airport tweeted early on Thursday.
In a later post, the airport said its upper-level roadway was reopening to allow travelers waiting for friends and family to pick them up to do so as traffic leaving the airport is almost cleared. "The entrance to the lower-level (Arrivals) road is still closed," it added.
The rain also prompted the closure of all Broward County public schools on Thursday.
"All afterschool activities, events, and extracurricular activities are also cancelled," the district tweeted.
Update 04/13/23, 10:10 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional comment from Bob Henson.
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