WASHINGTON — Hurricane Florence was the nation’s second rainiest storm in 70 years, a rainfall meteorologist calculated.

Only last year’s Hurricane Harvey rained more over a 14,000 square mile area during a four-day time period, said Ken Kunkel, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.

Scientists said climate change likely boosted rainfall totals for both storms.

Kunkel’s preliminary analysis found more than 17.5 inches fell on average over five weather stations in the 14,000 square miles of the eastern Carolinas stretching from Fayetteville, N.C., to Florence, S.C. The amount is second to Harvey’s 25.6 inches.

The third rainiest storm was in March 2016 in northern Louisiana and the seventh was in southern Louisiana in August 2016. The three rainiest and four of the top seven have all occurred in the last three years — which Kunkel said is no coincidence.

Kunkel, who specializes in analyzing rain data from thousands of weather stations, based his work on rainfall since 1949 when recording became more widespread across the continental United States.

It is “not surprising — but still terrifying — that the two top ranked soakers happened over the past two years,” said Penn State University climate scientist Michael Mann, who wasn’t part of Kunkel’s research but praised it. He said warmer oceans, more moisture and slower moving storms due to climate change make storms dump more rain.