6 Years Ago Today

[Category 5]

[HurricaneHunter914]

Allison is a TS that Texas will never forget. Good thing I didn't move in 2001.

[micktooth]

New Orleans shouldn't forget it either. We had a few feet of water in out street. It's not only the "Katrinas" NOLA has to be prepared for.

[AnnularCane]

I was living in NO at the time. All I remember about Allie is that it rained for several days. We didn't flood where I was.

[southerngale]

I'll never forget Allison. After the first night of torrential rains, I left to go to my sister's house because I had been warned about Pine Island Bayou and getting "trapped" back here. A lot of homes in my neighborhood flooded and I had only lived here for a couple of years and was worried that mine would too, but thankfully, it didn't. But I spent a lot of the time at my sister's trying to sweep water out of her house and garage. They were in the middle of remodeling and they had a concrete slab poured where they were going to add on, but it hadn't been leveled yet (or something like that) and as the torrential rains fell, the water poured into her house. The rain just wouldn't stop. It seemed like it rained forever...

Many sad stories came from Allison as well.

It rained most days in June that year. That is the wettest month I recall, ever, and we're no strangers to flooding rainfalls.

[Extremeweatherguy]

I didn't live in Houston when Allison hit, but I do hear stories about this all the time. Supposedly the water was well above the curbs where I live now (something that has not happened since I have moved here), and many areas were flooding. Truly a tragic event! I did, however, encounter Allison somewhere else. While traveling through Atlanta, her remnants caused my flight to be delayed.

[TampaSteve]

Yup...TS Allison...the only TS to have its name retired. That was a mess!

[LAwxrgal]

Ah, yes, Allison... the reason I moved out of my apartment in Thibodaux, LA and returned to St. John Parish... (had 3 feet of water in it)

[secretforecaster]

How can I forget...I was living in Houston at the time & I had to fly home to AL for a family emergency, so I left my car behind. My car was flooded (like everyone I knew). I remember watching it in AL on the news like whoa....it's STILL raining.

[Swimdude]

Ah yes, I was 12 years old (and a Houstonian) when Allison came through. What a day... There are many things I will indeed forget about Allison, but I won't ever forget the front page of the Houston Chronicle the next day... I can't find it on the Internet, but it was a picture of Interstate 10, with simply dozens and dozens of 18-wheelers floating down the middle of the highway. Wow...

[HalloweenGale]

I went through it as a subtropical storm, up in Nantucket

[Category 5]

2.47" of rain here from it when it passed by on June 17th

[Jinkers]

Tropical Storm Allison was the only TS to have it's name retired.

[MiamiensisWx]

Allison apparently featured some baroclinic elements, too. The genesis and synoptics were vaguely similar to the recent event with Barry. This may have played a role with respect to the prodigious precipitation totals. As Allison interacted with an adjacent system, the "training" event enhanced the rainfall. This is a perfect example of a weak system causing more problems than some hurricanes. I experienced several inches of rainfall in south Florida during TS Gordon (1994) and Irene (1999), and the effects were quite impressive. The problems created a mess, too.

[x-y-no]

Allison apparently featured some baroclinic elements, too. The genesis and synoptics were vaguely similar to the recent event with Barry. This may have played a role with respect to the prodigious precipitation totals. As Allison interacted with an adjacent system, the "training" event enhanced the rainfall. This is a perfect example of a weak system causing more problems than some hurricanes. I experienced several inches of rainfall in south Florida during TS Gordon (1994) and Irene (1999), and the effects were quite impressive. The problems created a mess, too.

Absolutely. TS Dennis in 1981 was a huge nasty rain event - my neighborhood in South Miami got over 25 inches rain in two days. I also saw three simultaneous tornadoes in that storm.

[Ptarmigan]

I remember Allison as well. It rained a lot. Some areas got 28 inches in 12 hours!

[Ptarmigan]

Six years ago on this day was the start of the heavy rain event that continued into the wee hours of June 9th. The remnant of Allison dumped up to 28 inches of rain in the Houston area. It triggered massive flooding and claimed 22 lives.

Infrared Loop June 8-9, 2001
Another Infrared Satellite

[CIRRUS5]

It was incredible. The rain did not stop. I watched in utter amazement from the third story of an apartment building. We stayed relatively dry on the west side of town. The east side of Houston was deluged. The difference in rainfall amounts in just a few short miles was amazing.

[Berwick Bay]

Miami said the "training" event enhanced the rainfall. Very glad you mentioned that Miami. You see that was less true for the Texas rains near Houston, but right on for the Louisiana flood problems which were also severe. If you look at Allison's course you see how it moved slowly north toward Dallas. While over E and NE Texas, we in Louisiana remained in the Wet E quadrant of the storm. But it was not just one solid mass of rain from Texas to Louisiana. Yeah, everyone got wet, but for ex. Erath La. a small coastal community suffered greatly from the "training effect". Where the flow takes one line of storms from out of the gulf, the storms in constant movement S-N while the line remains in place!! 14 inches one day, 11 inches the next day, this kind of thing.

[Jam151]

I'll never forget Allison because it came so close to flooding some houses in New Orleans East....and it never flooded in these areas before. After a couple days, the minor canals that run through the residential areas were filled to the top too. I remember thinking how scary it was because it wasn't even a hurricane.