Does that mean such a storm comes only once a century?
Actually, no – the story is a little more complicated than that. Meteorologists, climatologists and hydrologists calculate 100-year events as a statistical tool to determine the likelihood of intense storms or floods. For example, meteorologists use the average year-to-year rainfall in a given area to figure out the chances of having a storm of potentially epic proportions, explained Pam Knox, Assistant State Climatologist of Georgia. “What it means is that every year there’s a 1-in-100 chance of one of these happening,” she told LiveScience. So while these events have a lower statistical likelihood of happening than your average thunderstorm, they can and do happen, sometimes within just a few years of each other. “It’s very unusual, but not unprecedented,” Knox said of the particular event in Georgia. Atlanta’s weather woes began when a low-pressure system became stuck over the southeast, pulling moist air in from the Gulf of Mexico and dumping rain on Alabama, Georgia, eastern Tenne
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