ELI5- How does only 17″ of rain cause multiple feet of floodwater?

79 viewsOtherPlanetary Science

My little girl is 7 and just isn’t wrapping her head around this and I need to find a better way to explain this.

She is so so smart because she saw the coverage of Helene, and heard 17″ and hot confused.

I told her the water runs from the high places to the low places, but then she asked why the water doesn’t leave the low places and why is it still flooded.

I’m bad at dumbing things down.

In: Planetary Science

17 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

If you live near a river with a dam, go out to see the dam after a few days of moderate steady rainfall, and take a look at how different the water flow is from a regular day. Of course, it also helps if its a dam you see often to observe what regular waterflow looks like.

You are viewing 1 out of 17 answers, click here to view all answers.