Last August, Category 4 Harvey hit Texas with tremendous force. While wind and storm surge impacts were massive, the rainfall was simply off the charts as the vast system stalled for 5 days. 60.58 INCHES of rain fell on Nederland, TX setting a new record for most rainfall within a single US tropical cyclone.
That was last August but this August it was Lane’s turn to rewrite the history books. 52.02 inches of rain was recorded at Mountain View over 4 days. At an elevation of 1,600 ft on Hawaii’s big island, unlike Texas, the orographic influence played a key role in making Hurricane Lane the 2nd wettest US tropical cyclone on record and surpassing Hawaii’s old record of 52.0 inches set in 1950.
Hurricane Lane as a category 5 storm SE of Hawaii.
For Texas, Harvey was huge and stalled for days which is why it produced the exceptional rainfall.
Houston under water last August.
The orographic influence was one thing with Lane but it’s size, strength, relatively slow movement and SSE track allowed this to be Hawaii’s ‘perfect storm’. What’s amazing is these two record breaking ‘rainstorms’ have hit within 12 months.
Recent Comments