While Houston's yearly risk of experiencing a 500 -
millimeter rainfall event was around 1 in 2,000 at the end of the last century, Emanuel found the city's annual odds will increase significantly, to one in 100 by the end of this century.
What goes up, must come down and, more and more, that water vapor is coming down in extreme precipitation
events — defined in North America as more than 100
millimeters of
rainfall (or the equivalent in snow or freezing rain) falling in 24 hours — according to new research also published February 17 in Nature that examines such
events in the Northern Hemisphere.