Houston Flood
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Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is the Weather Notebook.

In June, parts of southwest Texas suffered through massive flooding from Tropical Storm Allison. The rains caused an estimated billion dollars in damage and took 20 lives in Houston. For Commentator Bob Henson the recent storm stirred images of another destructive downpour 21 years ago.

When I heard about the flood in Houston, it brought back some vivid memories. I went to college there, and I couldn't believe how a place so flat could accumulate so much water. One spring day the sky opened up and the rain came down like mortar shells. The next thing I knew, the streets of our campus were filled with water flowing way over the curbs. Before long I saw a kayak cruising down the brand-new bayou that had just taken shape in front of our dorm.

A few months later Tropical Storm Claudette came into town. Much like the remnants of Allison this year, Claudette took her time passing through. A weather station just south of Houston set the nation's all-time daily record for rainfall. In just 24 hours, the town of Alvin saw a phenomenal 43 inches of rain. In a swamp, this wouldn't be such a big deal. But in a huge, modern city built on a swamp, the water flows underground, into parking lots, across interstates, anywhere it can find a path. The same pavement that helps us navigate in our cars makes it easy for water to get around, too. We worry an awful lot about tornadoes and hurricanes, but Houston reminds us that water is our deadliest weather hazard-whether it's flowing down an empty canyon or across a city of four million people.

That's Bob Henson from Boulder, Colorado.

The Weather Notebook is a production of the Mount Washington Observatory. It is supported by the National Science Foundation.