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Wet Day
Wed Dec 08, 2004
Listen in RealAudio 
In southeast Texas, when it rains, it pours. I mean, really pours! Hi, I’m Bryan Yeaton,
and this is The Weather Notebook.
The steamy subtropics around Houston get a regular supply of gully-washers from the
Gulf of Mexico. Three years ago, Tropical Storm Allison brought upwards of 30 inches
of rain and some devastating floods. But even that wasn’t the biggest rain about which
Texas can boast. The town of Alvin -- where baseball star Nolan Ryan grew up -- is
also home to the rainiest 24 hours in U.S. weather history. It happened more than 25
years ago on July 25 and 26 of 1979. A weak tropical storm named Claudette drifted in
from the Gulf, and before long, Alvin was under water.
Thousands of residents had to be rescued from their low-lying homes. Like many of
Texas’ worst rainstorms, this one had a very localized impact. Houston’s
Intercontinental Airport, north of the city, saw only around three inches of rain. But on
the other side of Houston, an observer near Alvin collected the all-time U.S. record: a
whopping 43 inches of rain in 24 hours. That is, in one day, over three and a half feet
of water, which is more than Boston gets in a typical year. Despite all the flooding, the
storm wasn’t deadly enough to get Claudette retired from the list of hurricane names.
So every six years, another Claudette forms in the Atlantic. Last year, a weak Hurricane
Claudette took aim on -- where else? -- the Texas coastline. This one did only minor
damage, and, thankfully, leaked a lot less rain than its older sister.
Thanks to meteorologist Bob Henson for today’s soggy story. The Weather Notebook
is produced by the Mount Washington Observatory, online at
www.mountwashington.org. We are generously supported by Subaru of America.
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