Preliminary data from at least one Texas rain gauge appears to have broken the Texas tropical cyclone rainfall record and a new contiguous United States tropical cyclone rainfall record may have also been established, According to the US National Weather Service.
Cedar Bayou, near Mont Belvieu, Texas, recorded a preliminary rainfall associated with Tropical Storm Harvey of 51.88 inches as of 3:29 pm CDT (rainfall accumulation since 7 am CDT, Friday, Aug. 25, 2017). This reading is higher than the previous record for Texas of 48 inches during tropical cyclone Amelia of 1978 in Medina, Texas.
The all-time United States tropical cyclone rainfall record of at least 52 inches occurred during tropical cyclone Hiki in Kauai, Hawaii in 1950. It is certainly still possible rainfall from Tropical Storm Harvey may exceed the all-time United States record but no official rain gauge has reported a value in excess of 52 inches as of 5 pm EDT.
The following images and videos were shared with us by a resident of Kingswood, Texas from social media posts made by friends on her timeline.
Hannah Reider, who grew up in Kingswood (a suburb about near Houston), commented, “It’s awful, all my friend’s houses are flooded and all the neighborhoods are being evacuated and all the schools I went to are either flooded or being used as shelters.”
The National Weather Service released the following statement yesterday for the Houston/Galveston area:
“Catastrophic and epic flooding continued this evening in and
around the Houston Galveston areas and surrounding communities.
Rainfall since Saturday has totaled 20 to over 40 inches.
Additional life-threatening rainfall of 4 to 8 inches are
possible primarily near the immediate coast and far eastern
counties of the forecast area as Harvey travels northeastward
towards the Texas Louisiana border. Flash and bayou flooding
will transition to more river flooding in the coming days.”
