"Rainfall totals" refers to the amount of rain that has fallen within a specific period of time in a particular area. It is a measurement used to determine how much rain has accumulated.
Full definition
Long periods may occur between storms in a single season, and enormous variation exists in
yearly rainfall totals.
The seven -
day rainfall total from Harvey was as much as 40 percent higher than rainfall from a similar storm would have been decades ago, before human activity caused atmospheric carbon dioxide levels to spike, according to a study published yesterday in Geophysical Research Letters.
Figure 1: Map of southwest Alberta and southeast BC depicting four - day
rainfall totals from the 19th through the 22nd of June, 2013.
Preliminary one day and four day
rainfall totals for the period are summarized in Table 1 and depicted in Figure 1.
The California drought is so severe that most of the state is now running one to two years behind
on rainfall totals.
HIGHEST
RAINFALL TOTALS BY STATE: Andrews AFB, Md.: 15.3» (unconfirmed) Easton, Md.: 12.55» Wildwood Crest, N.J.: 11.67» Virginia Beach, Va.: 9.57» Milford, Del.: 9.55» Maysville, W.Va.: 7.75» Hanover, Pa.: 7.61» Washington, D.C.: 5.44» Lorain, Ohio: 4.29» East Milton, Mass.: 3.03» Jaffrey, N.H.: 3.83» Niagara Falls, N.Y.: 3.02»
That can lead to
extreme rainfall totals like Harvey's, and has made the number of days each year in the U.S. with more than two inches and three inches of rain more common.
Moisture from Hurricane Joaquin, offshore, interacted with an upper level trough to bring
rainfall totals exceeding two feet to some locations during the first week of the month.
The map (above) shows predicted changes in the annual number of days of extreme rainfall (defined as
rainfall totals in excess of the historic 98th percentile) across the United States by 2041 - 2070 as compared to 1971 - 2000 if greenhouse gases continue to increase at a high rate (A2 scenario).
NOAA's latest forecasts warn of the potential for hurricane - force winds from the northern Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod, Mass., and well inland,
with rainfall totals topping 12 inches in some areas.
Though no research has yet been done to attribute the
staggering rainfall totals from this storm to climate change, the downpours are very much in line with heavy precipitation trends.
At least not that year anyway --- December 2009 saw record
rainfall totals across the state, prompting some less - religious constituents to question the length of time it took God to answer their governor's prayers.
According to National Centers for Environmental Information and NOAA, more than 30 inches of rainfall fell on 6.9 million people while 1.25 million experienced over 45 inches and 11,000 people (including many in Southeast Texas) had over 50 inches based on seven - day
rainfall totals ending Aug. 31.
Rainfall totals varied across the region, with Corpus Christi and Galveston receiving around 3 inches (8 centimeters), Houston 7 (18 centimeters) and Aransas 10 (25 centimeters).
By
comparing rainfall totals from the past year with historical data from 1950 to 2011, the network has shown that 2010/11 has been the driest or second - driest year in 11 of 15 pastoral zones in the affected region.
A new study accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), a journal of the American Geophysical Union, finds Hurricane Harvey's seven - day
rainfall total potentially increased by at least 19 percent compared to a similar storm in the mid-20th century.
By September 16, the month - to - date precipitation was already more than 1.7 times any monthly
rainfall total since records began in the late 1880s.
While other parts of Africa have experienced statistically significant weakening of the monsoon circulation, analyses of long - term southern
African rainfall totals in the wet season (JFM) have reported no trends (Fauchereau et al., 2003).
The ten - year - olds go
beyond rainfall totals to ponder, «How does climate shape the development of cultures?»
A rainwater cistern enables students to
track rainfall totals, while xeriscape landscaping — which requires little to no water — helps students learn about local, drought - tolerant plants and gain authentic experience with complex biological concepts like photosynthesis and osmosis.
Kerjon Lee, a spokesman with the Department of Public Works, said studies indicate that cloud seeding can increase
rainfall totals considerably.
If Sandy hits with full force, the Mid-Atlantic could
face rainfall totals between 3 and 7 inches in Washington, D.C., historic flooding along the coasts, and widespread power outages resulting from wind gusts that could exceed 60 mph.
«Human - caused, heat - trapping greenhouses played a «measurable» role in the
colossal rainfall totals, which were fueled by high humidity and a stalled storm system above the Gulf Coast,» van der Wiel said in the report, according to USA Today.
But the forecast tracks showed Harvey's center dawdling after landfall, and many computer models predicted
enormous rainfall totals for large areas on and near the coast — including Houston — as they envisioned the storm lingering into the middle of this week.
Their methods were a little different: they focused on 7 - day
rainfall totals rather than 3 - day totals, for example, and checked for the influence of El Niño / La Niña conditions.
As in that study, they analyzed the history of rainfall measurements in the region to work out just how unusual the
incredible rainfall totals from Harvey were — and whether the chances of an event like that have changed over time.
[23] By 7 am CDT on August 27th, the Weather Service office in Houston was reporting a 24 -
hour rainfall total of 24.1 inches.
We're seeing these staggering
rainfall totals because this tropical storm hovered in place for days over southeast Texas, sweeping in vast quantities of moisture from the warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico.
My goal is to justify a Levy distribution for
daily rainfall totals based on some rather well - understood physics (which doesn't appear to be known by hydrologists) in order to motivate those with lotsa data to see how well the Levy distribution fits the data.
Pensacola's highest previous midnight - to -
midnight rainfall total was 15.29 inches, during a land - falling tropical storm in October 1934.