Over the weekend, the National Weather Service called Hurricane Harvey an “unprecedented” event and said “all impacts are unknown and beyond anything experienced” as the storm dumped a tremendous amount of rain on Southeast Texas.
The language in that tweet was scary enough, but then the NWS came back on Monday morning to reveal a known impact — it was having to add colors to its own precipitation graphic to illustrate just how much rain was falling on Houston and surrounding areas.
New shades of purple were added to the map, with the most hard hit areas get a pale shade of the color, which keyed to “observed precipitation greater than 30 inches.”
#Harvey in perspective. So much rain has fallen, we've had to update the color charts on our graphics in order to effectively map it. pic.twitter.com/Su7x2K1uuz
— NWS (@NWS) August 28, 2017
Another graphic from NWS Eastern Region shows radar information for Harvey from last Thursday, as the giant Category 4 hurricane formed in the Gulf of Mexico, through Monday morning.
Updated radar animation for #Harvey that includes the last 24 hours. The animation runs from 7 pm CDT Thu 8/24 to 1130 am CDT Mon 8/28. pic.twitter.com/yBGGXnVwCj
— NWS Eastern Region (@NWSEastern) August 28, 2017
The National Weather Service in Seattle tried to put the amount of rain falling in Texas into perspective for folks from the Pacific Northwest, who would presume to understand a thing or two about wet weather. But the figures being produced by Harvey right now are mind boggling. More rain fell on Sunday than in the wettest month on record for Seattle.
Rainfall for Houston on Sunday 16.07". Wettest month on record in Seattle 15.63" November 2006. #wawx #houwx
— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) August 28, 2017
And the Seattle Weather Blog tweeted Monday morning that measured precipitation in Houston since Friday was nearing Seattle’s total since Jan. 1.
Houston rainfall since Fri: 24.83"
Seattle rainfall since Jan. 1: 28.42"#HarveyStorm— Seattle Weather Blog (@KSeattleWeather) August 28, 2017
