What 5 inches of rain in 90 minutes looks like...
Seattleites know that despite our reputation as Rain City, USA, the city actually doesn't rank anywhere near the top of the charts when it comes to annual rainfall, because we get our rain here in light drizzle and drabs that are long in duration but short in accumulation.
How about the opposite? Check out this rain storm that struck the town of Anthem, Arizona, which is just north of Phoenix, on July 31.
UW Research Meteorologist Mark Albright says the place got 5 inches of rain in 90 minutes -- as much rain as it's taken Seattle to tally since May 20. The rain came courtesy of a big monsoon-generated thunderstorm. Wind gusts were also reported as high as 60 mph.
Sure is a marked change from this Seattle-kind of rain:
An interesting side note, Albright found this article from TucsonCitizen.com that notes it was decided to be a 1-in-a-1,000-year storm and thus, the city decided it was under no obligation to pay for any damages because it would be unreasonable to prepare for that level and rarity of a storm.
that second video all I have to say is surfs up boys... or atleast that some good skim boarding to be had...I kept expecting to hear thunder but nothing....
I love to watch a storm like this.
You know it's raining when water shoots 12-18 inches OUT of the storm drains. I've seen that here.
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That was gripping. I'm going to watch some paint dry now. Â
That has to be pretty rare for that area, doesn't it?
90 minutes? - I remember when I was in Leon, Guanajuato state, Mexico it rained about 6 or 7 inches of rain in 45 minutes. That was a fun walk. (My grandma send me to buy some tortillas and soda from a store, about 1 block away. Rain was cold)
I remember something like that. I was high school age (not in US) and one morning we had really really heavy rain (several inches/hr). I was watching on the news. The rain was washing cars down hills, and of course flooding every where. They closed down schools and business as if it was a typhoon warning.Â
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After that incident they started an official rain warning system, just like hurricane.