Harvey Sets New US Tropical Rainfall Record
HOUSTON (CBSDFW.COM/AP) - Harvey has set a new U.S. record for rainfall from a tropical system.
A weather station southeast of Houston at Mary's Creek at Winding Road, reported 49.32 inches of rain as of Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service.
That breaks the previous record of 48 inches set in 1978 in Medina, Texas by Tropical Storm Amelia.
Meteorologist Marc Chenard of the weather service's Weather Prediction Center says: "It's a big deal."
Already 14 spots in Houston have recorded more than 40 inches of rain and 36 different locations in Houston have recorded more than 3 feet of rain.
Houston is getting a bit of a break from the relentless rain. Forecasts call for only 2 to 3 inches in the Houston area Tuesday, but torrential rains will continue over other parts of Southeast Texas and southwestern Louisiana.
Harvey is drifting over the Gulf of Mexico, but is expected to turn back onto land Wednesday morning, probably in southwestern Louisiana. Meanwhile, the storm could creep eastward as far as Mississippi by Thursday, meaning New Orleans is in Harvey's path.
While Harvey made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Friday, it quickly lost strength to become a tropical storm that's sat over the Texas coast. That's meant rain, not wind, have been the primary concerns.
Harvey has dumped amounts of rain that are so unprecedented that the National Weather Service had to update its color charts on its official rainfall maps.
(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
