Rain Rate Question

[Constructionwx]

Last night, during a strong T-storm, I recorded a rain rate of 11.08"/hr..

What is the hardest you have ever seen it rain?


(Side note) I went to add the "left arrow" emoticon, and it erased everything I had typed............I think the skin that I am using is called subSilver FWIW.

[weatherwunder]

Well, Monday night, my weather station reported 14.72 inches per hour. That is the highest I have witnessed on my station anyway.

[PTrackerLA]

I'm not sure about the highest rain rate I've experienced but I can remember a few times when the rain drops seemed absolutely enourmous and I literally watched the street flood while I was in 5 o'oclock traffic.

[Constructionwx]

I have only had the ability to record rain rate since Feb. 2002. The highest I had recorded (up until last night) was just under 5"/hr.

[chadtm80]

(Side note) I went to add the "left arrow" emoticon, and it erased everything I had typed............I think the skin that I am using is called subSilver FWIW.

Constructionwx if that ever happens again right click the text box and select undo... That will bring everything back

[Constructionwx]

Thanks Chad, I didn't know it.

[wx247]

Good thing it didn't rain for an hour then!!!

[weatherwunder]

That would be build an ark time!!

[Constructionwx]

No kidding. It was pretty brief. Maybe 10min at the most.

[weatherwunder]

Ours was brief like that, just intense.

[Heady Guy]

you folks must have some big rain gauges. The most I have ever seen was over 2 hours off lake erie in on the lake/Astabula (sp) county line in ne Ohio on the lake shore. My grandparents have a house there and about 10 years ago they got 9.7 inches in 2 hours

[Aslkahuna]

the highest instantaneous rainfall rates ever measured are in excess of 80 inches per hour with rainfall actually being measured at over inch in a single minute. The US record in this regard is 1.23 in in a single minute during a thunderstorm in Unionville MD in July 1956. In the SW Desert, rainfall rates as high as 1.11 in in a single minute have been recorded. Our Optical Rainrate Sensors at Fort Huachuca measured rates over 12 inches per hour and we have seen rates over 6 inches per hour sustained over a 15 minute period. Incidentally Holt MO holds a record of 12 inches of rain in 42 minutes which is the most rain rain recorded in an hour or less in the World.

Steve

[weatherlover427]

That si quite some rain! Glad you didn't flood away! :o

[Constructionwx]

the highest instantaneous rainfall rates ever measured are in excess of 80 inches per hour with rainfall actually being measured at over inch in a single minute. The US record in this regard is 1.23 in in a single minute during a thunderstorm in Unionville MD in July 1956. In the SW Desert, rainfall rates as high as 1.11 in in a single minute have been recorded. Our Optical Rainrate Sensors at Fort Huachuca measured rates over 12 inches per hour and we have seen rates over 6 inches per hour sustained over a 15 minute period. Incidentally Holt MO holds a record of 12 inches of rain in 42 minutes which is the most rain rain recorded in an hour or less in the World.

Steve

I can't fathom what an inch of rain falling in 1 min. would look like. I bet the weight would take weak branches off of trees. Thanks Steve. That is very good info.

[PTrackerLA]

I've lived in my current home for 6 years now and my street has only flooded once, but it wasn't just a flood, we had a car and a minivan stall in front of my house. The water was probably over 2 feet deep and I had never before even seen the water cover the road before so I figure that the rain rate had to be just tremendous. Imagine seeing the street you though could never flood have cars stuck on it with crashing waves! Brein and Cajunma this was in the fall of 2001 in case yall might remember this particular storm.

[JetMaxx]

Hey RP...here are a few rainfall stats for my location in Douglasville..

4.54" - rainfall between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. last night (roads closed this morning everywhere in town).

11.28" - rainfall since June 1st (normal precip for 6/1-17 is only about 2.00")

21.07" - rainfall since May 1st (normal is 5.70")

35.80" - rainfall total in 2003 (normal is 25.2")

64.81" - rainfall at my location since September 01, 2002....the past 9 1/2 months. Normal for the Sept to mid-June period is around 38.8"; or +26" above normal)

If any tropical storms/ hurricanes track anywhere near metro Atlanta this season, we are now primed for record flooding...as bad as Alberto (1994) or worse

Perry

[JCT777]

Perry - I hope your area does not get affected by any tropical storms or hurricanes. You have obviously had too much rain in the past year!!

In Willow Grove, PA - there was a report of over 8 inches of rain in 40 minutes from a thunderstorm back in either 1995 or 1996. Also, I was once caught in thunderstorms that dumped close to 10 inches of rain in 2 hours time (back in the summer of 1987). It was scary driving through the rivers formerly known as streets! :o

[Constructionwx]

you folks must have some big rain gauges. The most I have ever seen was over 2 hours off lake erie in on the lake/Astabula (sp) county line in ne Ohio on the lake shore. My grandparents have a house there and about 10 years ago they got 9.7 inches in 2 hours

lol, size doesn't matter

I'm sure that during the course of that storm, You had rates much higher than the 4.85"/hr that the total reflects.

[Constructionwx]

I've lived in my current home for 6 years now and my street has only flooded once, but it wasn't just a flood, we had a car and a minivan stall in front of my house. The water was probably over 2 feet deep and I had never before even seen the water cover the road before so I figure that the rain rate had to be just tremendous. Imagine seeing the street you though could never flood have cars stuck on it with crashing waves! Brein and Cajunma this was in the fall of 2001 in case yall might remember this particular storm.

I piped a creek under my driveway when I built our place. (Without going outside with a tape measure) I'm pretty sure it is a 36" pipe. When I put it in, I never imagined that little creek would ever need anything bigger. I was wrong, it's come over the drive at least 4 times in the 5 yrs that We've been here.

[Stormsfury]

These airmasses that become locked over the Southeast can produce tremendous rainfalls in short periods of time ... especially when PWAT climbs over 2" ... look at the thread (South Carolina ... big rainfall problems) for doppler radar estimates since June 16th (Monday-Tuesday) - some locations in Berkeley County picked up 5" of rain in one hour ...

Some of the rainfall rates have I'm sure have had 10" of rainfall in one hour either yesterday or today from the heaviest convection (and based on a 62 DBZ reflectivity I saw from a storm yesterday morning in Berkeley County which produced the 5" in one hour) ... Ironic really, that in terms of longetivy rainfall situations such as a landfall tropical system, rainfall rates are heavy (and span longer timeframes), but intense (and usually pulse) thunderstorms with a very high PWAT atmosphere to work with produces the highest short-term rainfall rates ... (in which sometimes occurs after a tropical systems' demise - case in point, Tropical Storm Hermine in my location - the remnants of the decayed system sparked off thunderstorms - one which sat in my location for about 3 hours produced 8"-10" of rainfall ... I recorded 9.55" of rain in 147 minutes).

Aslkahuna made a great post in this thread involving the records, which again ironically being Holt, MO holding the record for most rainfall in an hour or less in the world (considering some of the rainiest locations in the world) ...