Hurricane Harvey Rainfall Breaks Continental U.S. Record 

On Tuesday afternoon the National Weather Service (NWS) announced that Hurricane Harvey’s rainfall had broken a continental U.S. record. At its recording station in Cedar Bayou, TX, a coastal area northeast of Corpus Christi, TX, and roughly 25 miles from downtown Houston, TX, the NWS recorded 51.88 inches of rain since Harvey hit, setting a new record for rain measured during a single tropical storm.

While Hurricane Harvey’s rain continues to pummel Texas, more rainfall records are expected to be broken, according to the NWS. Harvey’s rainfall has been so enormous, NWS has had to introduce new colors on its maps showing the region’s rainfall. A NWS spokesperson told CNET that “the tremendous rainfall in Texas is literally and figuratively off the map.”

For perspective, the average annual rainfall in Seattle, WA, is a little more than 37 inches; Miami, FL, averages nearly 62 inches a year. Harvey dropped almost 52 inches of rain since Friday. And the rain hasn’t stopped yet.

Perhaps Harvey’s rainfall is symptomatic of an enveloping planetary problem…like…climate change…and maybe the president will focus on repairing walls that are supposed to shield Americans from overflowing water as catastrophic natural disasters seem to be regularly record-breaking instead of a wall that is neither protective nor necessary. He won’t, but will congress?