Wild World of Weather: Severe storms, spring snow and waterfalls

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Around the world this week, severe weather causes damage across the Midwest, late season snow storms bring chilly conditions in the north, and the massive snowpack in the desert southwest causes a rare waterfall event.

Historic floods in Fort Lauderdale

A historic flooding event brought the city of Fort Lauderdale to a standstill last week.

Nearly stationary supercell thunderstorms lingered over the city for hours unloading a month’s worth of rainfall in just one hour at the peak of the rainfall.

The twenty four hour rainfall totals across Broward County exceeded 20 inches in some area leading to devastating scenes of flooding. Fort Lauderdale recorded 25.1 inches of rainfall alone.

Cars were left abandoned and submerged on the streets while neighborhoods were inundated with over 2 feet of water. The airport was forced to cancel and delay flights as the tarmac was covered in floodwaters. Luckily, no deaths were reported during the flooding event.

Severe storms leave damage in the Midwest

A storm system brought severe weather to the Midwest again last weekend.

Strong storms left behind structural damage and road closures in St. Louis. A total of 12 tornadoes were surveyed by the National Weather Service, the strongest rated EF-1 with winds up to 110 miles per hour.

Straight line wind damage was also reported. Winds up to 70 miles per hour damaged roofs and structures.

The area is expected to see more severe weather move through in the later half of this week.

Tropical Storm Ilsa strands fisherman

Across the globe, eleven Indonesian fisherman were rescued off a tiny island off Australia’s west coast on Monday.

The Australian Maritime Authority released a statement and footage of their teams on site. The fisherman were left with no food or water for six days after their fishing boats were destroyed by Tropical Storm Ilsa.

Ilsa made landfall on Western Australia around midnight local time with winds of 150 miles per hour. That equates to a category 5 storm on Australia’s intensity scale, equivalent to a category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale.

One survivor reportedly spent 30 hours in the water before reaching the tiny island. Eight people from one of vessels are also reportedly missing.

Spring snow up north

Spring has not yet sprung up north. This week many areas in the Midwest got another taste of winter.

This comes after a stretch of 80 degree weather last week for places like Chicago. A mixture of snow and rain fell on the city with lows in the 30s.

In Wisconsin, some areas saw nearly 20 inches of snow. Schools had to call snow days in April for the first time in memory.

Rare Utah waterfalls

The massive snowpack in Utah created a rare phenomena.

Most of the state saw two hundred to four hundred percent above average snowpack this year and the snow is still melting. In the southwest parts of the state, the snow is running into the Santa Clara River causing waterfalls like the ones at Gunlock State Park.

This is only the fourth time in fifteen years the water has been strong enough to create the waterfalls.

The waterfalls are expected to last a few more weeks, if not months - but it all just depends on how quickly the snow melts.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Click Here to report it. Please include the headline.

Copyright 2023 WVUE. All rights reserved.