# Severe Rainstorms



## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Does your city get a huge deluge once in a while? Today, some parts of Hong Kong received about 300 mm of rain in 1 day, but that is still short of the record for a one-day rainfall amount for June, which was set on June 9, 1998 at 411.3 mm.





































*Mean Annual Rainfall Distribution (1961-90)*


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## elkram (Apr 1, 2006)

That's an incredible amount of rain. Did the runoff from the mountainsides interfere with life down in the city?

We had a deluge one June day sometime in the late 1980s where it was heavy, heavy rain for two straight hours. It turned an entrenched expressway into a canal, hundreds of motorists had to scale firefighters' ladders to the service road above. The runoff from the long downpour completely broke up the asphalt and underlying layers of roadbed to the section of six-lane Atwater Avenue that has a sharp slope for a few hundred metres, that section was out of commission for at least a couple of months. Thousands of home basements were flooded.

Cheers,
Chris


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

There was a lot of flooding in the city. Here is a news clip (in Cantonese) - http://app.hkatv.com/webtv/play.php?video_id=46869. It was the top story on the evening news.

*Chaos as floodwaters sweep through SAR *
Hong Kong Standard
Joyce Kam and Albert Wong
Saturday, June 03, 2006

Torrential rain has lashed Hong Kong, damaging roads, flooding homes, creating traffic congestion and disrupting classes.

Workers conducting repairs on roads and other structures will have to continue working in adverse conditions.

Cheng Chor-ming, senior scientific officer at the Hong Kong Observatory, said heavy showers are likely to continue over the weekend.

Commuters already late for work Friday would have been caught out by the sudden development of the rainstorms.

The amber rainstorm warning signal was issued at 10.35am, but swiftly developed into a red rainstorm warning signal 20 minutes later, lasting for almost four hours. The amber rainstorm warning signal resumed at 2.45pm and was cancelled at 3.30pm.

Landslide warnings were also hoisted.

Ting Kao village in Tuen Mun was badly hit when water more than a meter deep flooded homes. Firemen evacuated 10 residents and their pets. Two houses were severely damaged.

Heavy and persistent rain also damaged the surface of Wong Chuk Yeung Street, causing traffic diversions. The Highways Department is still making repairs.

Flooding along Castle Peak Road was waist high, causing a minibus to stall and trapping the 10 passengers, who had to be rescued by firemen. There were a total of 18 reports of flooding. Tai Kok Tsui, Tai Po, Tsuen Wan and Ching Lung Tau village were the worst affected. A 30-meter tree at Old Peak Road opposite the Ladies Recreation Club fell on a gas station around 3pm and residents nearby were evacuated. A women injured her head slightly during the evacuation.

Kai Tak Airport Tunnel in Kwun Tong was also flooded and had to be closed for a short period.

More than 150 millimeters of rain was recorded in the northern part of Lantau Island, Sha Tin, Tai Po and Sai Kung while more than 170mm was recorded at Tsuen Wan. There was a minor landslide on Ma On Shan, but no injuries.

Classes that were due to begin in the afternoon were suspended. Red flags were also hoisted on beaches across Hong Kong Island because of dangerous waves.

The Home Affairs Department's Emergency Co- ordination Centre has been opened. Shelters will be opened for people in need of temporary accommodation.

A red rainstorm warning was also raised in Macau, while amber warnings were raised in Shenzhen and Zhuhai.

Meanwhile, weathermen said rainfall in May totalled 431.5 millimeters, about 36 percent above the average of 316.7mm.

The rainfall since the beginning of the year was 733.1mm, about 19 percent above the average of 616.5mm. Total sunshine in May was 122.2 hours, 31.6 hours below normal.


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## SE9 (Apr 26, 2005)

Damn, 300mm in a day!

The last storm I remember in London was sometime within the last 5-6 years, when trees were uprooted, and there was minor flooding, but nothing serious. (Caused by a night of *heavy* rainfall)


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## St. Anger (Apr 23, 2006)

lol, all that rain got here too, my balcony was making my room flood, im only a couple hundred kilometres from HK in panyu, its amazing how fast the rainstorms just stop and start and how hard they come down when they do, but it is very annoying that it hasnt really taken a break from raining for almost a week now


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## Eric Offereins (Jan 1, 2004)

In the Netherlands, on average it takes 4-5 months to get this much rain. :shocked:
The record here is just over 200 mm in one day.


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## *Victoria* (May 16, 2006)

In Mildura it takes 1.5 years!


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## miamicanes (Oct 31, 2002)

We have a special name for that kind of weather in Miami... "August".


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Some photos from today's rainstorm in Hong Kong :


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## JAKJ (Oct 17, 2004)

411 mm in one day :lol: That is our annual average rainfall


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## _00_deathscar (Mar 16, 2005)

Think Bombay topped off the mother of all rainfalls last year when it got something ridiculous. Think it was nearly 1000mm of rainfall in 24 hours if I recall correctly; or somewhere thereabouts - anyways I was stuck in all that.


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## Chicagoago (Dec 2, 2005)

The greatest 24 hour rainfall in the United States history was in the Houston, Texas suburbs with a total of 1,092mm or around 43 inches of rain falling in one day.


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## Sexas (Jan 15, 2004)

^^ yes I was there, in a bar drunk


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## A42251 (Sep 13, 2004)

^Are you talking about Hurricane Allison in 2001?


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## goschio (Dec 2, 2002)

Townsville got a few years ago 560 mm in one day. It is believed that some suburbs received 700mm.
This highest daily rainfall this rain-season was around 170mm.


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## Chicagoago (Dec 2, 2005)

^^ I remember seeing the pictures from 2001 where the Houston freeways looked like canals. The record rainfall was actually back in 1974(?) I don't remember if that was the exact year, but it was the mid 70's during a small tropical storm. Obviously the rainfall made up for the relatively light winds. It seems those smaller tropical storms can sometimes dump far more rain than a large hurricane. Maybe they move slower...


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## _00_deathscar (Mar 16, 2005)

Chicagoago said:


> The greatest 24 hour rainfall in the United States history was in the Houston, Texas suburbs with a total of 1,092mm or around 43 inches of rain falling in one day.


Yep it was somewhere along those lines - think it might've been exactly 40 inches.

The problem with the rainfall in Bombay though was that the infrastruture there is so poor everything was completely flooded the city basically shut down for 2 days - including communications. Luckily I was at home, and hence sort of untroubled. However, my mum had gone to visit a friend at nearly the other end of Bombay, and whilst attempting to come back in a cab, there was a point where the vehicles just wouldn't move any further - think she ended up walking back home for bout an hour and a half or two.

My aunt, who lives in Bombay and was attempting to get back home from work, couldn't be contacted for 3 days, which was rather worrying. As it was though, she had nestled in a relatives home on that very same day.

And one of the worst things of all this was that I was dead bored, and wanted to come back to Hong Kong. My flight was initially scheduled to be a day or two after the rain fall, but as it ended up, I came back to Hong Kong two weeks late.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Downpour hits New York, slowing commute and flooding roadways *
2 June 2006

NEW YORK (AP) - A driving rain swept across New York on Friday, sending pedestrians scrambling for cover, flooding roadways and snarling subway lines at the height of the weekend rush hour. 

By around 11 p.m., 2.33 inches of rain had fallen in Central Park, according to the National Weather Service, which warned of drainage problems and flooding on highways, streets and underpasses. 

Service was suspended on several major subway lines in Queens because of flooded tracks, according to Deirdre Parker, a spokeswoman for NYC Transit, which runs the city's subways and buses. 

Power had to be shut off at one station in the borough because water had reached the third rail, she said, and workers would have to shovel out mud and debris before electricity could be safely restored. 

The water was just beginning to recede around 9 p.m., said Parker. 

Flooding also caused problems at Manhattan's 96th Street station for the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 trains, at the 23rd Street No. 6 stop and at the Rector Street No. 1 train station, she said. 

The weather also caused flight delays of up to two hours at LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International airports. 

More rain was forecast for Saturday.


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## JAKJ (Oct 17, 2004)

goschio said:


> Townsville got a few years ago 560 mm in one day. It is believed that some suburbs received 700mm.
> This highest daily rainfall this rain-season was around 170mm.


One of the mountains near cairns (near mt bartle frere) is the thrid wetest place on Earth averaging around 13000 mm a year I belive, that is very wet


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## Taller Better (Aug 27, 2005)

Those pix were Crazy!! WOW!


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## ♣628.finst (Jul 29, 2005)

goschio said:


> Townsville got a few years ago 560 mm in one day. It is believed that some suburbs received 700mm.
> This highest daily rainfall this rain-season was around 170mm.


I remember Townsville is fairly dry (In tropical sense) with average annual precipitation around 800 mm.


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## Very Controversial (Dec 4, 2005)

In cities near the equator, rainy days makes the day feel cool.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Chaos, severe flooding as deluge hits HK again*
Albert Wong
Hong Kong Standard
Saturday, June 10, 2006










Heavy and persistent rain has once again lashed through Hong Kong, breaking up roads, disrupting school classes and adding to the workload of workers still trying to repair the damage caused by last week's heavy downpour.

Exactly one week ago, torrential rain drew a red rainstorm warning. Friday's rain drew a black rainstorm warning in the morning.

The Hong Kong Observatory said Friday thunderstorms and heavy rain were likely to continue for the next two days and it will not be until Tuesday that residents might get to see a clear sky.

The areas that were worst affected last week were hit once again.

Ting Kau village, in Tuen Mun, where 10 residents had to be rescued from their flooded homes, was again the site of a quasi-waterfall Friday. However, repairmen still conducting work on the damage from last week, had erected barricades the night before to prevent flooding.

The nearby Castle Peak Road was also badly flooded causing traffic to come to a near standstill.

Continuous rain turned Wong Chuk Yeung Street, Sha Tin, into a water slide, breaking up the same 400 meter square which had just been relaid after last week's downpour. *The New Territories received the most rainfall, with more than 200 millimeters in Sai Kung and 180mm in Tuen Mun. The the rest of Hong Kong saw 100mm.*

An amber rainstorm warning was raised at 10.25am. Twenty minutes later, it was upgraded to a red rainstorm warning, and 20 minutes after that, a black rainstorm warning was rais
ed. All warnings were cancelled by 3.20pm. However, an amber rainstorm warning went up again at 8.40pm along with an urgent thunderstorm warning. Gusts of up to 100 kilometers per hour were recorded.

The unsettled weather is due to an active trough of low pressure in the region, according to the Observatory.

There were 49 reports of flooding, mainly in the New Territories, with five on Hong Kong Island. There were also three reports of landslides.

Observatory senior scientific officer Leung Wing-mo urged members of the public who are going out to attend World Cup parties to pay attention to weather conditions.


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## I-275westcoastfl (Feb 15, 2005)

Ah thats what i love about summer this time of the year is when florida gets its rainstorms which to people from other areas may seem severe.


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## Khanabadosh (Nov 16, 2004)

I happened to witness one crazy rainy day on june 28, 2001 in Islamabad, Pakistan. The city received 625 mm of rainfall in ten hours. The rain was so heavy that streets turned into streams. The rainfall might had been higher in surrounding hills.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Hong Kong - Torrential rain causes widespread flooding 
Observatory record is broken, 600mm of rain is dumped on Sha Tin, and Jockey Club cancels night meeting *
14 September 2006
South China Morning Post





































The Observatory set a record yesterday by issuing the most weather warnings and signals at the same time on a day when torrential rain caused widespread flooding and landslides and forced the first night races of the season to be cancelled. 

The No 3 strong wind signal was also raised for one of the shortest periods on record without a No 8 following. 

In the 24 hours to 10.15pm, more than 600mm of rain was dumped on Sha Tin, while more than 300mm fell on Tseung Kwan O. 

Between 11.45am and 12.15pm, the landslip, thunderstorm and red rainstorm warnings were all issued alongside the No 3 signal. The Observatory said this had never happened before. The previous record was set in 1999 when a landslip and rainstorm warning was issued alongside a typhoon signal, an Observatory spokesman said. 

The No 3 signal was raised for four hours, from 10.35am to 2.40pm. The only time it was raised for less than that, without a No 8 signal being raised, was on July 1, 1966, when it went up for one hour. 

An Observatory spokesman said that although a tropical cyclone brought heavy rain, the winds were not particularly strong, but a sudden change in wind direction justified the decision to raise the No 1 signal to a No 3 signal. 

"The tropical depression was edging west-northwest, but it changed direction to northwest. That meant that Hong Kong would be affected as winds would be east to south easterly," scientific officer Tam Cheuk-ming said. 

There were 18 flooding cases on Hong Kong Island, 11 in Kowloon and two in the New Territories. The most serious landslides occurred on Hong Kong Island. Shek O Road was closed to traffic at one stage when a hillside collapsed, bringing down 20 cubic metres of debris. At Mount Butler, a landslip along Sir Cecil's Ride also brought down 20 cubic metres of debris - causing the road to be limited to single-lane traffic. 

The Hong Kong Jockey Club announced the cancellation of its first night meeting of the season early yesterday afternoon, shortly before the lowering of the No 3 signal. 

East Rail train services were disrupted during the morning rush hour for 40 minutes due to wiring problems near University Station. The second disruption in five days saw the closure of some gates during rush hour as the KCRC implemented crowd control measures. 

Scores of passengers were affected. Services between Fo Tan and Tsim Sha Tsui East operated at 10-minute intervals while trains between Fo Tan and Lo Wu ran at 20-minute intervals. 

A Polytechnic University engineer said the wiring problems were caused by the heavy rain. 

Democratic Party legislator Andrew Cheng Kar-foo called for the introduction of a penalty system for service disruptions. He said the MTR Corp and Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation together have had 2,000 minutes of disrupted services since 2004. Mr Cheng suggested two penalty points for every disruption of eight to 15 minutes, and three penalty points for every 16-20 minutes' disruption.


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## bob rulz (Oct 20, 2005)

Over the summer, on August 1, we got almost 1 inch (25mm) of rain in 1 hour. That's very heavy for this desert environment and about as heavy as it really gets here. The record 24-hour precipitation in Salt Lake City is just 2.41 inches (61mm), which occurred from April 22 - April 23, 1957. This total just can't compare to the deluges so many other places get.


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## mhays (Sep 12, 2002)

Seattle doesn't get heavy rain, just frequent light drizzle in the winter. 

The heaviest constant rain I've ever experienced was in Hong Kong and Macau three years ago. I got stuck in Macau because my ferry back was cancelled due to a Level 8 typhoon.

For short-term rain, I experienced many quick thunderstorms in Boise where the rain would be insane for a few minutes then go away.


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## Super Hornet (Sep 10, 2006)

heavist rain in Melbourne that I can think of is a 120mm downpour in the space of 2 hours. It occured during a thunderstorm in Dec 2003.


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## goschio (Dec 2, 2002)

Xäntårx said:


> I remember Townsville is fairly dry (In tropical sense) with average annual precipitation around 800 mm.


The average annual precipitation in Townsville is around 1100mm. With most of it coming down between December and March. 
Unfortunately its not enough for rainforest.


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## _00_deathscar (Mar 16, 2005)

Strange to think that Hong Kong gets more rainfall in one day (at times) than a few cities in the world, combined, times 10.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

What about cities along the monsoon regions? I'd imagine *South Asia* gets quite a deluge during those few months of the year.


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## EricIsHim (Jun 16, 2003)

hkskyline said:


> What about cities along the monsoon regions? I'd imagine *South Asia* gets quite a deluge during those few months of the year.


In Singapore and KL, they rain everyday. They may not have the same amount the rainfall in just one day, but overall average annual rainfall should be a lot higher than HK. Even Taipei it rains pretty much everyday in the summer time due to its geographic location.


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## EricIsHim (Jun 16, 2003)

elkram said:


> That's an incredible amount of rain. Did the runoff from the mountainsides interfere with life down in the city?


The amount of rain fall certainly did impact the city life downstream considering most daily activities are at surrounding of the base of high mountains. But the impact today is not the same as decades ago. 

There are hundreds kilometers of catchwater channel on the mountains run along at/near the same altitude in Hong Kong catching runoff from the top of the mountain at the mid-level before hitting the low area. The channels divert water into the resevoirs for daily water use in the city or discharge excessive water directly into the sea via a designated pipelines or channel. The system solves the problem of drought in Hong Kong, also retains runoff from high altitude preventing flooding downstreams.

In recent year, shoreline reclaimation has extended those discharge pipeline outlet further and further away from where it used to be, and designed to be.
The problem is water does not have enough energy to travel out into the sea with the extended distance; sea water backfills the pipes and causes flooding. It happened a decade ago in Mong Kok and Prince Edward area in Kowloon, and now in Sheung Wan in Hong Kong. 

In order to solve the problems in Kowloon, the government built a giant underground storge tank in Mong Kok collecting water upstream and from the surrounding before discharge everything into the sea. The plan has been working and no more flooding in Mong Kok and Prince Edward since the project completion.

Over in Hong Kong, there are plans to build pump stations in Sheung Wan to help pumping water out to the sea from inland solving the flooding problem locally; and build a second catchwater channel on the mountain catching more runoff and divert water to a designated outlet to decrease the chance of flooding in HKI regionally.

You can find more information at the Hong Kong Drainage Services Department:
http://www.dsd.gov.hk


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

EricIsHim said:


> In Singapore and KL, they rain everyday. They may not have the same amount the rainfall in just one day, but overall average annual rainfall should be a lot higher than HK. Even Taipei it rains pretty much everyday in the summer time due to its geographic location.


Yes, I notice some monsoon-prone areas get months of sunshine and then months of pure rain (ie. 20+ days of rain a month on average).


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## Maroon Grown (Dec 22, 2004)

brisbane, australia had a storm back in March 2001. 368mm was the highest recorded figure and that fell within 3hrs. Flash flooding cut off nearly every major road causing massive traffic problems. I can recall cars floating from an exclusive car yard into the creek where they were caught under the bridge and blocked the raging waters. this made probems even worse flooding areas that have never been flooded before even when we had the notorious and tragic 1974 floods.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Heavy rainstorm lashes Jinan, killing 29 people *
20 July 2007
South China Morning Post

Nearly 30 people were dead or missing in Jinan after a record-breaking rainstorm on Wednesday covered downtown areas of the Shandong capital with waist-high water within an hour. 

Flooding also killed six others in the province. 

Jinan residents voiced anger at local authorities, saying they were caught unaware by a thunderstorm that struck half an hour before their local weather office issued an emergency warning. 

Jinan's civil affairs department told Xinhua that 25 bodies had been found by noon yesterday, with another four missing and 171 injured in the worst rainstorm the city had seen. 

Although heavy downpours this summer have ravaged large swathes of the country, including many heavily populated areas, causing a large number of deaths, it was still rare to see such high tolls in the centre of a major city. 

The rainstorm started shortly after 5pm, with the city centre receiving a record 180mm of rain within three hours, hundreds of buses and cars stranded and electricity and water supplies cut off for hours. 

"No one has ever seen such a heavy downpour," said city resident Yu Yong . "The floodwater level reached one metre within just 10 minutes and left the city's poor drainage system totally useless." 

The emergency warning from the local meteorological office came around 5.30pm, and local authorities failed to take effective measures to save lives and deal with serious flooding, local residents said. 

Some of the deaths occurred when pedestrians were washed away by the floodwater from pavements into rivers without guardrails on the banks, residents said. People were also found dead in submerged cars. 

Xinhua said the city's low-lying northern Tianqiao district had seen most deaths, with at least 10 drowned or electrocuted and two missing. 

While the rainfall has eased in Jinan yesterday, heavy rains in other part of Shandong had left four people missing with nearly 6,000 homes flooded, the report said. 

Days of torrential rains and flooding caused the collapse of a **** on a tributary of the Huai River in Anhui province yesterday. 

More than 2,000 people were evacuated and over 10,000 mu of farmland flooded. 

Another 67,600 people in the province's Fengyang county were forced to leave their homes due to rising Huai water levels, which reached 20.35 metres in the morning, 45cm above its safety limit. 

More rain was forecast in Sichuan province , where 54 people have died since July and 22 were missing, Xinhua reported. 

The Health Ministry has issued an emergency notice, urging local authorities and citizens to be aware of the negative impacts of flooding and recent pollution of rivers and lakes on drinking water.


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

Although Hartford usually gets over 1,100mm of rain each year...the rainfall is usually evenly dispersed through the year, so severe rainstorms that dump LOTS of rain are usually rare...unless there is a tropical or extratropical storm.

Even the heavy thunderstorms that we get...although they look horrible at the time, they usually don't last for long, and they usually don't make much of an accumilation.

But I remember one infamous storm from a while back...it was part of a storm that was over a week long, from October 7 to 15. Remnants of Tropical Storm Tammy hit the US Northeast. 

It contained the rainiest day in the decade so far: October 14, 2005. During that day, about *5.26 inches (134mm)* of rain fell. That was more rain that is expected in the entire month of October! 

The total was about *13.12 inches (333mm)*, making October 2005, the rainiest October ever. Flooding was widespread, there was even reports of a mudslide, with damages of $6m nationwide. I remember that week...I felt as though the rain was never going to end. hno:

We had a third of our average rainfall in one week that year...


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## guzroo (Aug 1, 2007)

Thats a lot of rain. We could use some of that in Brisbane, we had 1mm of rain for the month of July.


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## Sexas (Jan 15, 2004)

_00_deathscar said:


> Strange to think that Hong Kong gets more rainfall in one day (at times) than a few cities in the world, combined, times 10.


funny Hong Kong got all the rain but not a lot of trees (in the city):lol: :lol:


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## karim aboussir (Dec 4, 2006)

here we have disaster areas in central florida some areas got almost 30 inches of rain yes 30 inches !!! many people lost their homes because of the rising st john river and of course florida is a swamp and very soft geology sinkholes is almost everywhere pavements breaking apart it is insane all is due to tropical storm fay


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## _00_deathscar (Mar 16, 2005)

JayT said:


> Beerwah 40km north of Brisbane received *907mm* in one day on the 3rd February, 1893.
> I think its a world record that still stands.
> 
> j


Not even close I believe.


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## goschio (Dec 2, 2002)

To be honest, I don't trust data from 1893.


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## l'eau (Jul 7, 2008)

september 28th, 2006.
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/6320/thunder006dw8.jpg
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/2031/thunder009cf5.jpg
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/1642/thunder010lr7.jpg
http://www.aliagaekspres.com.tr/admin/foto/yagmur.jpg

http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/news/386422.asp

izmir is quite dry but izmir is famous about thunderstorms.
we have a very popular proverb about izmir; "dont trust izmir's weather and girls"


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## chicagogeorge (Nov 30, 2004)

Chicago's one day rainfall record happened in August 1987 when over 240mm of rain fell in 9 hours.


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## D.D. (Nov 26, 2007)

The cities of colombia have experienced record rainfalls in more that 80 years!!!! many houses located in the hills are collapsing due to the instability of the ground.


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## _00_deathscar (Mar 16, 2005)

goschio said:


> To be honest, I don't trust data from 1893.


And why not?


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## l'eau (Jul 7, 2008)

chicagogeorge said:


> Chicago's one day rainfall record happened in August 1987 when over 240mm of rain fell in 9 hours.


august???:crazy:
izmir's one day rainfall record happened in september 28th, 2006, 145.3kg/m rainfell in 2 hours:crazy:
it was crazier than india's monsoons :eek2:


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## gladisimo (Dec 11, 2006)

145.3 kg/m?


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## l'eau (Jul 7, 2008)

^^145.3kg/m2


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## goschio (Dec 2, 2002)

_00_deathscar said:


> And why not?


Non-standardized measurement methods. 

And it also depends on the person who took the measurements.


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## gabrielbabb (Aug 11, 2006)

Not that severe but was near the highrises


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Severe floods hit Sierra Leonean capital *
12 September 2008
Agence France Presse

Several parts of Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, were submerged in more than one metre (four to six feet) of water Friday after five hours of torrential rain, meteorologists here said.

"It is probably the heaviest downpour since the start of the rainy season" in May, meteorologist John Koroma said of late Thursday's storm.

Flood waters destroyed homes, swept away household goods and damaged vehicles amid unconfirmed reports of people having been buried alive in homes when huge boulders were dislodged from hilltops overlooking the capital.

The rain caused huge traffic jams throughout the city and forced businesses and markets to close.

Houses around the city's waterfront were the hardest hit. At the slum community of Kroo Bay, in the city's central district, occupants abandoned their houses to seek shelter on higher ground.

Musu Sesay, a fishmonger who was drenched and shivering from the cold, told AFP, "it is as if the world was coming to an end with all this water."

Shaking her head in disbelief she was wondering where so much water could come from when everybody seemed to be talking about a water shortage.

Relief workers from the Ministry of health and the City Council were out in large numbers to clear debris while humanitarian organisations sent officials to assist victims.


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## WalkTheWorld (Aug 1, 2007)

two weeks ago we had 117mm in 6 hours and my lawn disappeared under two good inches of water. Traffic was like a boatrace by the end of the storm.

We usually get 700mm a year.


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## chicagogeorge (Nov 30, 2004)

We had 320mm official fall in Chicago this September in just 4 days, an actually, in 24 hours 205mm of precipitation fell...

Some suburban locations received 400mm, this month. Even so it all came down in 4 days. 18 of days this month have been mainly sunny and dry though.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Thousands evacuate as Vietnam capital battles flood *

HANOI, Nov 5 (Reuters) - More than 40,000 people were evacuated from inundated areas of Hanoi on Wednesday and some residents who stayed behind had to cope with floating garbage as they waited for flooding to recede even though rains eased.

Authorities in Vietnam's capital moved more than 10,300 families from their homes and asked the army to stand ready to help victims of the worst flooding in the city in more than two decades, the online VNExpress newspaper (www.vnexpress.net) reported on Wednesday.

Flood waters from southern China caused rivers in northern Vietnam to swell to their peaks on Wednesday, worsening inundations across a wide region that have killed 127 people, 93 of them in northern and central Vietnam.

Among the dead were 22 people killed in Hanoi, which has a population of about 6 million and includes urban and rural areas.

"Garbage and home appliances are floating everywhere. The water is black and as black as acid," a Reuters witness said by telephone from Tan Mai, an urban area about eight km (five miles) south of Hanoi's centre.

"Each lane is like a ferry station and it is chaotic, like in wartime."

More storms are forecast to strike Hanoi late this week, possibly bringing tornadoes and strong winds, the national weather centre said.

Vietnam, the world's third-largest rice exporter, has reported nearly 260,000 hectares (642,000 acres) of rice, corn, sugarcane and fruit had been submerged.

But its main agricultural areas, including the Central Highlands coffee belt and the Mekong Delta rice basket -- both several hundred km (miles) to the south -- have not been affected by the floods.

Vietnam's Health Ministry has called on all medical staff in flooded area to prepare for any outbreaks of cholera or dengue as residents parts of Hanoi and 17 other provinces struggled with shortages of fresh water, food and power cuts. (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh, editing by John Ruwitch and Sanjeev Miglani)


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Looting and chaos rain in Brazil after massive floods *
26 November 2008
Agence France Presse

Survivors of massive floods in southern Brazil on Wednesday turned to looting, while rescue crews grappled with the chaotic aftermath of what President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called "the worst environmental catastrophe we've ever seen."

Drenching rains and landslides across Santa Catarina state in nearly two months have killed 86 people, left 78,000 homeless and disrupted the lives of some 1.5 million people in the region, authorities said.

"Its the worst environmental catastrophe we've ever seen," Lula told reporters after surveying the devastation by helicopter in the Itajai valley, Brazil's main textile manufacturing center now turned into a mudflat.

"I'm from a region (the northeast) where people spend half the year praying for rain, while here in Santa Catarina we have to ask God to make it stop raining," the president added.

He said he signed an emergency measure authorizing 700 million dollars in aid for the region to rebuild roads, bridges and buildings destroyed by the floods.

Lula also ordered the armed forces to work in the effort.

"It is the worst tragedy Brazil has seen as far as flooding is concerned," Lula said. "It is time we join hands in helping Santa Catarina return to what it was, one of the most developed states in the country."

Firefighters in in the coastal city of Itajai reported widespread looting, with several supermarkets and drug stores cleared of staples and medical supplies. Half of Itajai's 200,000 inhabitants have been evacuated due to floods.

"The looters weren't happy with taking food and medicine, they also took booze and cigarettes," said fire department spokesman Samuel Martins.

In Blumenau, a nearby city of 300,000 that had the highest death toll from the floods (21), looters broke into abandoned homes, the mayor's office told AFP.

In both cities, police were overwhelmed by the widespread unrest, the sources said.

In eight towns completely cut off by flooding, including Pomerode, emergency supplies began arriving Wednesday by helicopters.

"We're in full rescue mode and have already picked up 500 (people). We've also handed out three tons of food, medical supplies and drinking water," Colonel Jose Henrique Rufo in command of 550 troops in Pomerode told TV Globo News.

The federal government said it has released 280 tons of food to the stricken populations.

Floodwaters were starting to recede in many areas, but 75 percent of the region was still under water, a civil defense official said, warning of more landslides likely in the waterlogged terrain.

Health authorities said the region was at risk of epidemics, and have dispatched disease prevention teams to stem some sources of contagion.

Other southern Brazilian states, principally Rio Grande do Sul and Espirito Santo, were affected to a lesser extent by flooding and mudslides.


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## DELCROID (Apr 9, 2006)

We in Venezuela had a terrible case of severe rainfloods in December, 1999 where tens of thousands of people died. In just two weeks it rained in a relatively small area more than twice of what it normally rains in the whole country during a single year (and we are talking about a country with amazon-type rainfall levels)!!!. It was pretty wierd. The area now is slowly recovering:



I of III - Before:








II of III - The Event:








III of III - After (evacuation & rescue operations):












.


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## DELCROID (Apr 9, 2006)

goschio said:


> Non-standardized measurement methods.
> 
> And it also depends on the person who took the measurements.



Freak phenomena is taking place more and more often everywhere taking people by surprise and it is something that is perceived by popular wisdom worldwide, no need to just look at scientific devices to realise something is going on and where the great majority of people sees such change just by looking outside their own windows.....most surveys all over show a concern about climatic change and is not just media-induced paranoia, most people are becoming victimins of freak events never taking place before in their own communities -or events with higher intensity than normal: tornados, floods, hail, etc.......Btw, the UN has recognised climatic change as a concern, perhaps they do have really good data about it.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Weather office flunked on rainstorm forecast: councillor *
CBC
Tue Dec 2, 2:35 AM

A St. John's city councillor says it is unacceptable that weather forecasters provided no advance warning of heavy rains that hit the city Saturday evening, leading to widespread flooding and property damage.

Neither Environment Canada nor Amec, the private company that St. John's pays for specialized forecasting, had expected Saturday's heavy rains. The storm brought more than 100 millimetres of rain, with 67 millimetres falling within just three hours.

"We were struck by a major event and didn't even know anything about it until late in the evening," Coun. Tom Hann said at council's regular meeting Monday evening.

City officials said during the weekend that their response to the storm was hampered because they had no time to prepare in advance for the storm, such as by tending to storm sewers.

By the time the city got official word of the storm, the rains had been underway for at least an hour.

"I think it was 6:01 p.m. that our staff were advised that there was a major event," Hann said. "In the meantime, ... they were out in the street ... [already] doing their job."

Neighbourhoods around St. John's and nearby municipalities were flooded, including some in higher elevations that usually do not have problems following heavy rains.

Hann referenced a campaign that returned Environment Canada forecasting to Newfoundland and Labrador, with the reopening in January 2007 of the Gander weather office.

A key argument of the campaign was that Environment Canada had not been able to forecast several significant weather events, including the severity of snowstorms, while it was producing forecasts for the province from Nova Scotia and Quebec.

"There was an awful lot of racket to get the weather forecasting station back in Gander, and that's not the kind of service we should be getting," Hann said.

Meanwhile, the city's engineering department is doing a report on the damage caused by Saturday's storm and how the city responded.

As part of that report, Hann said he wants the city to ask forecasters to explain their advance reports.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Venice considers what might have been if mobile barriers had been in place to prevent flood*
4 December 2008

VENICE, Italy (AP) - The luxury Bauer hotel was inundated by calls of concern and cancellations this week -- but was spared the floodwaters that swamped most of the city.

Though just a few steps from the city's lowest point -- St. Mark's Square -- the Bauer and other Venetian businesses kept the waters at bay using metal barriers to block doorways.

It's a lesson that may help wash away remaining resistance to an elaborate project to build mobile barriers that will prevent flooding from reaching Venice and its artistic treasures.

Monday's deluge -- Venice's biggest in 22 years -- has caused yet-uncalculated damage and scared away tourists who are the lifeblood of the city's economy. Francesca Bortolotto Possati, the Bauer's owner, said people around the world responded to the flood "like it was a tsunami."

While Venetians take floods in their stride, the swirling waters that burst the banks of the city's famed canals have convinced many here of the wisdom of a €4.3 billion ($5.43 billion) project to build towering metal gates designed to protect Venice from being deluged.

Moses, named after the Old Testament figure who parted the Red Sea, is nearly half finished and is expected to be operational by 2014 -- two years behind schedule due to financial problems.

If the retractable gates had been working at the time of the 160 centimeter (60 inch) floods, they would have been raised from their resting place on the seafloor by 6 a.m. -- "keeping the entire city dry," according to the consortium administrating Moses.

"Since the floods, people keep stopping me and asking me when the barriers will be completed. They say, 'Don't slow down, don't be late,'" Flavia Faccioli, spokeswoman for the New Venice consortium.

On Monday, with the tide forecast to reach 130 centimeters (51 inches), city officials issued a series of alarms at 6:30 a.m. that reached thousands of citizens via text message, telephone, fax and siren. New alarms came every time the forecast rose.

"Already Sunday night the forecast was for 120 centimeters (47 inches), which means flooding in 35 percent of the city. That alone was a signal for me to be alert. And those who were, sustained minor damages," said Paolo Canestrelli, the director of the city's tidal monitoring office.

But Bortolotto Possati, a third-generation Venetian, said flood warnings, even at 120 centimeters (47 inches), have become so common that Venetians shrug them off.

A transport strike on Monday exacerbated the emergency for the many business owners who live on the mainland: There was no way to reach their stores to erect barriers and remove goods off floors and lower shelves.

St. Mark's Square floods when the tide reaches just 80 centimeters (31.5 inches). Because of the risk, city officials have ensured that Venice's artistic treasures are protected from floods up to 2 meters (6.6 feet) by keeping them above that level.

Moses would be raised when the tide reaches 110 centimeters (43 inches), which happens on average four times a year, for a total of 55 times in the last decade, officials said.

Venice has experienced only three floods worse than Monday's since 1923. And the rarity of truly damaging waters submerging 90 percent of the city -- 12 since 1936 -- has become an argument for the anti-barrier camp.

"The exceptional events happen once every 15 to 20 years. Is it worth doing such a huge and irreversible project to stop water every once in 20 years?" said Luciano Mazzolin of the No Moses Committee.

Venice has sought protection from flooding for centuries.

Floods during the first millennium were generally caused by the two main rivers that empty into the lagoon, not by the sea. The sea became the main problem only after passages were dredged to allow modern ships into the port in the 1800s.

Venice has become even more vulnerable over the last century as it sank a full 23 centimeters (9 inches) due to the combined effect of rising water levels and settling of the land.

One of the main factors behind the floods is the scirocco winds that arrive from the south and hit landfall exactly at Venice's position.

With climate change, Venice could see an increase of these very high tides and their intensity, said Fabio Trincardi, a geologist who directs Italy's Institute of Marine Sciences.

Trincardi said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted that the oceans could rise 50 centimeters (20 inches) by the end of the century, which could spell repeated disasters for Venice and other low-lying areas of the world.

"Once the sea starts off from an additional 50 centimeters, even a minor high tide increase becomes catastrophic," he said in a telephone interview.

------

Associated Press Writer Ariel David in Rome contributed to this report.


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## nordisk celt83 (Dec 2, 2008)

Absolutely crazy pics! 
In dublin we've had two of wettest summer's on record in a row, it's terrible. We had our highest ever daily fall on record in August this year, 76.2mm, it was crazy looking. And it was the wettest august on record, 192mm, which is more than the normal average for 4months of the summer season may, june, july and august.
Our average is 700mm a year and 129 days a year with some recorded rainfall.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*City in Brazil's Amazon faces worst floods in 56 years *
22 June 2009
Agence France Presse

Manaus, a city deep in Brazil's Amazon jungle, is suffering the worst flooding it has seen in 56 years, civil defense officials said Monday.

Torrential rain in Brazil's north has swollen the Amazon river and its tributaries, including the Negro river on which Manaus sits, they said.

Over the weekend, the Negro river rose to 29.62 meters (88.32 feet) -- just a centimeter off the level it reached in 1953, when it hit 29.63 meters.

At least 18,000 people have been affected by the deluge, which has swamped part of Manaus and washed sewage and trash into houses.

Many residents are refusing to leave their homes.

"We have to evacuate around 70 people, but they don't want to leave," one civil defense official, Antonio Batista, told the Globo News television channel.

Around 60 people died in April and May when torrential rains lashed the normally dry north and northeast of Brazil.


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## goschio (Dec 2, 2002)

^
Just last year they were complaining because of drought and that the amazon might turn into a desert because of global warming. Good that the rain is back.


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## Chicagoago (Dec 2, 2005)

We've had the wettest period now in Chicago's history.

Over the past 18 months we've gotten *1,946mm* of precipitation, a lot of that falling in some huge rainstorms.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Vienna museum to evacuate depots after flooding *
24 June 2009
Agence France Presse

The Albertina, one of Vienna's most famous museums, said Wednesday it will remove hundreds of thousands of precious works of art from its depots after rain flooded the museum's main depot.

The Albertina, which attracts around one million visitors each year, said that evacuation of all of its 950,000 artworks would begin Thursday to an unspecified site outside the capital.

Given the size of the collection, however, it was not yet clear how long the evacuation would take.

Albertina director Klaus Albrecht Schroeder said the difficult decision was taken after heavy rain flooded parts of the main depot, leading to the removal of some of the museum's most important pieces -- including works by Duerer, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Schiele and Klimt -- on Tuesday.

"Not a single piece has been damaged so far," Schroeder said, adding that current exhibitions would not be affected and that the museum would remain open to visitors.

Heavy rain has hit Vienna and much of Austria over the past few days, leading to flooding in some areas.

In the capital, the 21-kilometre (13-mile) Donauinsel -- a man-made island built in the middle of the Danube as part of a sophisticated flood protection system -- was partly flooded.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Rain deluges Pakistan's largest city, leaving 26 dead and cutting electricity*
19 July 2009

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) - At least 26 people died in heavy rains in Pakistan's largest city, officials said Sunday.

The rainfall in Karachi since Saturday evening also cut off electricity and inundated all major roads, suspending life in the country's commercial capital, Mayor Mustafa Kamal said.

Dozens more were injured, he said. Electrocution, roof collapses, road accidents and drownings caused the deaths, Kamal added.

Chief meteorologist Qamaruz Zaman said nearly 5.9 inches (15 centimeters) of rain fell in Karachi on Saturday. Rain continued on Sunday.

Karachi, a city of more than 16 million people, has aging infrastructure and a poor drainage system.

Qamar Pervez of the Edhi ambulance service said most of the bodies had been handed over to their families.

The Karachi Electric Supply Co. said the bad weather cut the city's power.


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## _00_deathscar (Mar 16, 2005)

Apparently 900 mm of rainfall fell in Mumbai in a 3 day span just recently.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

_00_deathscar said:


> Apparently 900 mm of rainfall fell in Mumbai in a 3 day span just recently.


It's their monsoon season, isn't it?


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## _00_deathscar (Mar 16, 2005)

Yep - the rains came late this season though, but when it came...it came in a flurry.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

_00_deathscar said:


> Yep - the rains came late this season though, but when it came...it came in a flurry.


But is the amount normal though given their monsoon season at this time of year?


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Heaviest rain in 70 years floods 3,000 Shanghai households, strands 2000 passengers *
































































SHANGHAI, July 30 (Xinhua) -- The heaviest rains in 70 years hit China's largest city, Shanghai,Thursday, flooding 3,000 households and stranding nearly 2,000 passengers at airports.

No casualties have been reported.

Rainfall reached 80 to 140 mm in most areas of the city. The water was 10 to 30 cm deep on the roads and 5 to 10 cm in households in Luwan, Huangpu, Zhabei and Jinshan districts.

Some vehicles were damaged by fallen tree branches, according to the municipal headquarters of flood control.

More than 500 workers are clearing away the water.

The weather delayed 49 flights to Shanghai and 19 departing flights from Hongqiao and Pudong airports. Another eight flights landed at alternative airports, according to the Shanghai Airport Authority.

Some flights started taking off from Pudong airport at 5 p.m., but it was unknown when schedules would return to normal.


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## _00_deathscar (Mar 16, 2005)

hkskyline said:


> But is the amount normal though given their monsoon season at this time of year?


300mm in a day is just above normal, but nothing too extraordinary - similar to a particularly bad typhoon or rainy day here bringing between 150-300mm of rain.

An average of 300mm each day for 3 days is odd though.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Heaviest rains in 80 years kill 31 in Turkey *

ISTANBUL, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Flash floods killed 31 people in northwest Turkey, sweeping through the city of Istanbul, swamping houses, turning highways into fast-flowing rivers and drowning seven women in a minibus that was taking them to work.

Twenty-six died in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city with 14 million inhabitants, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said late on Wednesday, after two days of the heaviest rain in 80 years produced sudden flood waters which engulfed low-lying areas.

Another five died in Saray, west of Istanbul, reportedly all from the same family. Nine more were missing, Erdogan said.

In Istanbul rescue workers, some on boats, put out planks and ladders to help drivers, stranded in fast-flowing waters, reach the safety of bridges and high land. Military helicopters also assisted bringing stranded people to safety.

The worst flooding occurred in areas in the west of the city, on the European side, where drainage is often poor.

The waters began to recede late on Wednesday revealing wrecked buildings and debris scattered across the streets, as distressed residents and workers started the clean-up.

Interior Minister Besir Atalay said the death toll could rise as waters continued to recede.

Witnesses said waves of muddy waters pulling cars, trees and debris crashed into homes and buildings early on Wednesday as people were getting up to break their fasting during the holy month of Ramadan.

"We heard a crashing sound and then saw the waters coming down carrying cars and debris," said Nuri Bitken, a 42-year-old night guard at a truck garage.

"We tried to wake up those who were still asleep in the trucks but some didn't make it. The dead had to be retrieved by boats," Bitken told Reuters.

CNN Turk television showed scenes of white blankets covering the bodies of people found in the western Halkali neighbourhood near Ataturk International airport. Airport officials said there was no disruption to flights.

"My friend got stuck in the truck after the water rose all at once. The vehicle stopped working after filling with water. We rescued him with a winch," Kamil Coskun told Reuters TV in Ikitelli district.

Istanbul's ancient district of Sultanahmet, with its famous mosques, the palaces of the waterfront and Beyoglu's area of narrow streets were largely unaffected.

In the Ikitelli commercial district, residents scrambled for office equipment amid debris. In other parts of the city, people waded chest-high through swamped highways.

HUGE DAMAGE

Insurance company Axa Sigorta Deputy General Manager Ali Erlat said damage from the floods could total $70 million-$80 million, the state-run Anatolian news agency reported.

Public Works Minister Mustafa Demir, who toured the worst hit areas, said there was "huge damage to infrastructure".

Ali Erdem, chief analyst at the Istanbul Meteorology Department, told Reuters Tuesday's rainfall was the heaviest recorded in the last 80 years.

The bodies of seven women were discovered in Bagcilar, a working-class suburb of Istanbul, on Wednesday. They had drowned in a minibus that was taking them to jobs at a textile factory, Anatolian said.

Istanbul is situated on the steep banks of the Bosphorus strait, which divides Europe from Asia and is one of the world's busiest waterways -- a major conduit for cargo ships and oil tankers passing between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.

Elsewhere in northwest Turkey, two bridges were demolished by floodwaters on the Bahcekoy-Saray highway.

Istanbul authorities have been more occupied in their disaster planning with making provisions for earthquakes in a city crossed by a major faultline. A quake killed 18,000 people in northwest Turkey in 1999.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Outraged Saudis blast govt after deadly Jeddah flood *
28 November 2009
Agence France Presse

A Saudi lawyer said on Saturday he will sue the city of Jeddah, as thousands took to Facebook to blast authorities in a rare burst of open outrage after floods killed more than 100 people in the Red Sea port.

The toll jumped to 103 from Wednesday's floods after authorities discovered more bodies, Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television reported late Saturday.

Human rights lawyer Walid Abu al-Kheir said families of victims of the disaster were supporting the lawsuit, which will allege massive mismanagement of city works construction by the Jeddah government as a key cause for the flooding.

"They didn't make the drainage work. They have told us for three years or more that it has been completed," he said. "Even people from the city government said there were mistakes."

Waleed said he planned to file his lawsuit next Saturday, when government offices and courts reopen after the two-week Eid al-Adha holiday.

A huge rainstorm sparked the flash floods, with many victims caught in their cars and drowning in two metres (6.5 feet) or more of water.

Roads were destroyed and cars and trucks left in piles after the waters receded on Thursday.

Electricity is still out in some of the worst hit parts of the city, the country's second largest after Riyadh.

With public protests banned in Saudi Arabia, Jeddah residents have taken to the Internet to attack the government.

More than 11,000 people joined a Facebook page created three days ago to complain about the floods, saying the city government and contractors were at fault for not building adequate infrastructure.

"We've been talking about this issue for years. Everybody knew this disaster was coming. We've seen something like this on a smaller scale," Saud Kateb, a media technology professor and one of the Internet protesters, told AFP.

"There's only one reason: it's corruption," he said. "The government is putting a lot of budget into this, and the budget just disappears."

Many posters to the Facebook page "Popular Campaign to Save the City of Jeddah" called for officials to be tried or at least be fired, although few were willing to name names.

"In Saudi Arabia, it is very difficult to point your finger in certain ways," said Kateb.

He said many Jeddah residents were outraged as well that the official state news agency SPA had reported after the storm that Jeddah residents appreciated the rain and the city's infrastructure was working well to handle the water.

"SPA wrote something unbelievable," Kateb said.

After complaints were made to his own popular Facebook page, Information Minister Aziz Khoja subsequently criticised the agency as being insensitive to the victims.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Heavy rain in Brazil causes losses to traders *
9 December 2009

BRASILIA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- The heavy rain that fell Tuesday in Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city, has inflicted substantial damage to trade.

Sao Paulo General Warehousing and Centers Company (Ceagesp), the largest center of food distribution in Latin America, had to remain closed due to the rain. The administration estimates it caused direct damage of about 15 million reais (nine million U.S. dollars), the average turnover of one day, beyond the waste of about 80 tons of watermelon, which represents 70,000 reais (40,000 dollars).

All merchandise that had contact with water had to be thrown away. To ensure that traders would not reuse the goods, inspector Antonio Carlos Pedro spent the whole day Wednesday monitoring the site.

"Any proximity to water, which is very dirty, is reason why the goods must be thrown away," he explained.

The designer Aecio Silva do Amaral said he spent 240 reais (137 dollars) to buy a boat and two oars, in Vila Leopoldina, west Sao Paulo, one of the areas most affected by the rain.

"It took me 40 minutes to come by boat in a stretch that lasts 10 minutes walking or five minutes by car."

Amaral said he had even found a fish in the “river” formed in the avenue next to his workplace.

In the same neighborhood, Ana Virginia Lutti, a restaurant owner, said that because of the flood she lost two computers, a meat scale, a couch and everything that was in the fridge.

"Now I will install gates to prevent the water from rising," she declared.

According to Lutti, six of her employees risked their lives trying to go out in the waters.

In a press conference, the mayor of Sao Paulo, Gilberto Kassab, said that there is no investment forecast to contain the effects of rainfall in the next year.

The designer Amaral urged the government to promote a campaign advising people not to throw garbage on the street, a practice that clogs drains and prevents the drainage of rainwater.

"I found much garbage, like ears of corn and diesel. Something has to be done to shock people in order to stop them from littering," he said.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*WASA TAKES INITIATIVE TO IMPROVE WATER, SANITATION IN DHAKA*

DHAKA, Dec 15 Asia Pulse - The Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) has taken up an initiative to improve sustainable delivery of storm water drainage, wastewater and water services in the city.

The World Bank is supporting Dhaka WASA to improve sustainable service delivery through Dhaka Water Supply and Sanitation Project (DWSSP).

The project aims to invest on rehabilitation and expansion of the drainage system, sewerage and water supply and sanitation infrastructure within the areas of responsibility of the DWASA, a press release said on Monday.

The Dhaka WASA will implement the Dhaka Water Supply and Sanitation Project (DWSSP) at a total cost of US$ 165.7 million, of which the World Bank will provide about US$ 149.0 million and the government will finance the remaining costs.

The Dhaka WASA has already initiated the works to rehabilitate the first batch of selected canals in the city, which is expected to be completed in the next few months.

At the same time, the installation of two major storm water pumping stations in Rampura and Kamlapur areas of the city are expected to start within the next few weeks. After completion of the works, it will improve drainage system and minimize urban flooding in the city.

At present, the WASA supplies water to about 70 percent of the population of the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) and its suburbs, the Dhaka Metropolitan Area (DMA).

However, the quality and quantity of services provided throughout the area is not even. In particular, service provision is undeveloped in slum areas.

With a deteriorating urban planning environment, most natural channels and wetlands that help Dhaka cope with storm water flows have been filled up with unchecked expansion of settlement and accumulation of domestic and industrial wastes.

Indiscriminate dumping of industrial wastes and untreated sewage into the Buriganga, Balu, Turag and Shitalakhya rivers continues to strain an already overburdened sewerage network and worsen the water quality of the surrounding water bodies.

After initial delays in establishing project management arrangements, the Dhaka WASA is now actively engaged in procuring the key infrastructure works and other services funded under the project.

WASA is also in the final stages of retaining expert services to prepare a master plan for the wastewater management of the Dhaka City. The project is expected to lead to the rehabilitation, repair and expansion of priority investments in Dhaka city's sewerage network and treatment plant to improve the urban environment.

The DWSSP is also supporting Dhaka WASAs pilot expansion of water and sanitation services into selected Dhaka slums to provide services to the urban poor city dwellers in the slum areas.

With the assistance of organizations experienced in providing services to slum areas, the Dhaka WASA expects to begin the process of community consultations in the next few months towards the design and installation of this pilot project.


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## SlidellWeather (Sep 11, 2005)

*December rain has already set a record for New Orleans*
By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune 
December 15, 2009, 8:42PM

Toad chokers, frog stranglers, rains of biblical proportions.

Whatever you call them, there's about to be a break in the dank, drenching, record-setting rainy days of December, according to forecasters in the Slidell office of the National Weather Service.

Unfortunately, the break will be brief.

The dreaded "flash flood watch" was canceled Tuesday at 6 p.m., as a strong cold front began an overnight push through the New Orleans area. That means Wednesday will be dry, with temperatures in the mid-40s Wednesday morning, rising only to about 60 in the afternoon, said meteorologist Michael Koziara.

The cold front will stall in the central Gulf of Mexico, and yet another low-pressure system will form from its remains, Koziara said. It will track just off Louisiana's coastline as it moves east Thursday night and Friday, bringing with it a chance of 1/2 to 1 inch of rain.

In its wake, expect a handful of cool, dry days, with lows remaining in the lower 40s, and highs rarely getting out of the mid-50s through Sunday. A second cold front Monday night will bring a chance of rain and then continued cool, dry conditions for several days, he said.

The two-week reign of sogginess that smacked the New Orleans area has broken just about every rainfall record in Louisiana's climate book, said Barry Keim, state climatologist.

"It is truly amazing," he said. "The wettest December on record prior to this month was 10.77 inches in 1967. The wettest month ever recorded (at Louis Armstrong International Airport, location of the National Weather Service's rain gauge of record for New Orleans) was 21.18 inches in May 1995." 

As of 6 p.m. Tuesday, 22.54 inches had fallen at the airport during December, more than a third of an average year's rainfall. And it's still only Dec. 16.

Blame a growing, moderately energized El Nino, Keim said. The weather pattern named for the baby Jesus is marked by warmer-than-normal sea temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean that affect the atmosphere as it streams above the water.

"The classic El Nino signature is to have an enhancement of Gulf storms in the wintertime, and that's how this has been playing out," Keim said. Low-pressure systems form in the Gulf and then track along or across the state's coastline.

El Nino causes the subtropical jet stream, an always-moving river of air anchored 10,000 feet to 15,000 feet above the surface, to become more energized and to slip to the south from its normal seasonal position midway across North America, Keim said. 

"The speed of the air in the jet stream pulls up moisture from the Gulf, like a vacuum cleaner," he said. That lowers pressure at the surface, setting up the perfect conditions that have created long lines of thunderstorms that have repeatedly crossed the New Orleans area this month. 

Expect El Nino to trigger similar conditions into spring, Keim said. 

Around the region, local officials spent most of Tuesday dealing with the more than 7 inches of rain that fell in some areas overnight Monday and early Tuesday.

At least 35 homes were flooded in St. Charles Parish between Saturday and Tuesday in Luling, Paradis and Boutte. Many of the homes were in low-lying subdivisions where residents remember the floods of 1989 and 1995 with little fondness.

St. Charles officials said 11 inches of rain fell in a 24-hour period between Monday and Tuesday. Parish public and parochial schools were closed in the face of widespread street flooding, and a Red Cross shelter was opened at the Eual J. Landry Alternative School next to the parish courthouse in Hahnville.

Schools are scheduled to resume classes today and holiday schedules for both systems will remain unchanged.

Neighboring St. John the Baptist Parish, which got hammered last week by a torrential downpour that led parish officials to declare an emergency, fared pretty well. 

However, sandbags are available at the St. John Airport in Reserve for residents who need them.

In Kenner, about 3 inches of rain fell Tuesday between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m., flooding streets, Public Works Department Supervisor Kenny Melvin said. A half-dozen homes in south Kenner flooded, and there were sewage backups throughout the city.

Residents of homes on Salvador and Centanni roads in Old Kenner reported interior flooding, said Emile Lafourcade, the administration's spokesman. South Kenner, which has the oldest pipes in the city, also received the most rainfall, he said.

"You're dealing with smaller and older drainage pipes installed 50 and 60 years ago," Lafourcade said, and the city's sewerage system was not able to keep up. The aeration basin at the central treatment plant overflowed by midnight Monday, and excess treated sewage was diverted to drainage canals and Lake Pontchartrain, according to a City Hall news release.

On the West Bank, the Company Canal near Westwego was closed early Tuesday because of strong easterly winds and heavy rains, officials said. 

A small tornado touched down Tuesday in southern Westwego at about 5 a.m. 

Westwego Mayor John Shaddinger said residents south of the West Bank Expressway who live between Central Avenue and Victory Drive reported high winds and the peculiar "train sound" often heard during tornadoes. Shaddinger said several homes in that area were damaged.

The nine schools that make up the Algiers Charter Schools Association closed early Tuesday due to the threat of flooding. 

About 5,000 homes and businesses throughout the area lost electricity for a few hours early Tuesday, said Entergy spokesman Morgan Stewart. Most were in the Gretna area.

In St. Tammany Parish, officials waited to see whether Tuesday's rainfall would add to floodwaters swelling several rivers and bayous. Warnings predicting minor flooding were issued by the National Weather Service.

The St. Bernard Parish Council's Tuesday night meeting was not expected to be disrupted by water that leaked through the slab beneath the council chambers, although carpet was pulled up from the floor. 

One Chalmette church also had some water in it, and the parish Sheriff's Office opened its sandbagging site at the St. Bernard Port. About 50 residents took advantage of the free bags. 

In New Orleans, high water in Bayou St. John Tuesday morning threatened to spill over into nearby streets. Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority- East workers put sandbags along the bayou's banks at Moss Street, but authority general manager Bob Turner said that even if the water spilled out, it would pour into the city's drainage system. 

Mark Schleifstein can be reached at [email protected] or 504.826.3327


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## Dimethyltryptamine (Aug 22, 2009)

This isn't news, but I think it's somewhat interesting. Pictures are from the Gold Coast, Australia when we had quite a severe flood earlier this year. Combination of rain and high seas.

This car got dragged out of a carpark and onto a beach.








Tannykid

Foam from the breaking waves
























Tannykid

The high seas forced the sand back and made huge cliffs of sand








Tannykid

Sand was forced off the beach and scattered all across the road and mall (The beach is about 1-2 meters lower than this road, as you can see by the steps on the left of the picture)








NormanBear

This shows how high the water came in an area which doesn't appear to be directly on the coastline








xxxMicrobexxx

Enjoy.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Wow .. quite a big difference from this :


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Storm-drain neglect creates nightmares*
EPD: Many metro cities, counties are ignorant of own water controls.
21 February 2010
The Atlanta Journal - Constitution

Concern that some metro cities and counties weren't maintaining storm water infrastructure such as drains and detention ponds prompted the state to require stepped-up inspections beginning in 2008.

The state Environmental Protection Division found, however, that many governments didn't know what storm water controls they had. At least eight of 15 metro governments hadn't finished or were just finishing infrastructure inventories as of their 2009 reports to the state, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution review found.

Most metro governments are supposed to inspect about a fifth of their infrastructure each year. But some examined 1 percent or less of certain drainage features, state records show. Maintenance and inspections can be expensive.

"The struggle is how do you pay for it with limited resources when you have citizens that want police, firemen and libraries," said Tom Gehl, a deputy director of governmental relations for the Georgia Municipal Association.

Meanwhile, climatologists have detected a recent trend across the Southeast toward heavier rainfalls --- just the sort that can overwhelm aging infrastructure such as drains and underground lines that, in some areas, no longer work.

In Smyrna, Tanay Crawford's townhouse in Afton Downs flooded three times in five weeks in 2008, submerging the hardwood on her first floor in 3 inches to 4 inches of water.

"The cleanup every time was a nightmare," she said.

It took her months to realize that a clogged drain in the street was sending more water than usual rushing toward her 1981 townhouse, which sat below street level. She said she pestered Smyrna officials until crews fixed the drain.

State records suggest storm drain lines --- which carry water from places such as streets to drainage ditches, ponds or other outlets --- are particularly neglected. Without regular maintenance, clogs and breaks are inevitable over time.

Many storm water pipes are 20 years to 30 years old and nearing the end of their useful life, said Michael Thomas, general manager of Clayton's water authority. "We're seeing cave-ins in the street and people's yards," he said, "and people don't have the funds to replace that."

Yet at least seven of the 15 cities and counties either didn't know how many storm lines they had or reported inspecting fewer than a fifth of them, state reports show. The cities of Kennesaw, Alpharetta and Roswell, as well as Clayton County, reported so few inspections they approached zero percent of the system.

Local officials said they are trying to comply with the state rules, which is sometimes a matter of better documenting work they are already doing. Clayton officials are keeping track of inspections more closely and doing more of them. In Kennesaw, Alpharetta and Fulton County, crews typically look in catch basins --- drains in the street to collect rainwater --- to find problems in lines between them, instead of inspecting the lines separately, officials said. Roswell plans to meet the state target for inspections this year.

Atlanta residents complain

In Atlanta's Buckhead, Virginia Highland and Midtown neighborhoods, residents complain the city's neglect of infrastructure worsens flooding.

Vivian Harding has owned her Buckhead house, now a rental, for three decades. Banks of a creek on her property line are eroding, widening and inching closer to her foundation in one place.

"I'm watching my house being taken by this creek," she said.

The volume of water grew after the city installed sidewalks in 2006, she said, and she worries a sewer pipe in the creek bed is in jeopardy. She wants the city to clear a nearby storm pipe outlet, reinforce the bed and reduce the runoff.

"The city just sits back and is doing nothing about it," she said, adding her property value has likely plummeted. "Who's going to buy this problem?"

Atlanta watershed management department spokeswoman Janet Ward said workers have examined the situation and do not believe the city is responsible for fixing it.

In any case, Atlanta has told state officials the city can only afford to do maintenance in emergencies. State officials warned, "If the city conducts the inspections as required, but does not follow up with maintenance of the structures found to be deficient, then the inspection program is almost useless."

"Right now, our storm water focus is on public safety," Ward said. "Our focus is on getting the streets clear so cars don't wreck."

Money and manpower

Gwinnett County spent nearly $16 million in 2008 and $22 million in 2009 on storm water management. Alpharetta spent more than $900,000 in the 2009 fiscal year and projected this year's budget will top $1.8 million. Storm water staffing ranges from two workers in small cities to 60 in Gwinnett.

The high cost of repairs has spurred more than 40 Georgia counties and cities to create storm water "utilities," which charge property owners fees based on square footage of impervious, or nonabsorbent, surface --- such as roofs, driveways and parking lots. The fees provide a consistent source of cash for repairs, instead of forcing local officials to find money in the general fund. Fees can run in the thousands of dollars for commercial developments.

The Council for Quality Growth, a developers' group, supports utilities, but they can be a tough sell with taxpayers. In Cobb County, talk of creating one drew such vociferous opposition that the County Commission never put the idea to a vote, Chairman Sam Olens said.

"It was called the rain tax," he said. "The public had zero appetite for the issue."

Cobb instead boosted spending on storm water using county funds. Yet, without a utility, the county will take longer to reduce its backlog of problems, he said.

Several officials said their cities are hesitant to propose new fees now because of the poor economic climate. Atlanta, however, is considering reviving a utility it disbanded years ago.

"Right now we're just reacting," said Ward, the Atlanta watershed management department spokeswoman. "There's no way to pay for it without a utility."

Storm water solutions

The ground manages to drain or absorb rainwater fairly well until the amount covered by impervious surface reaches 30 percent. At this point, each new acre of development draws a more extreme response from streams, increasing the chance of flash floods. Many U.S. cities have begun efforts to improve storm water control by managing the amount of impervious surface.

Here is a comparison of runoff in an urban setting with 75 percent to 100 percent impervious or hard surface area vs. runoff in a natural setting.

What now?

Though it was late coming, the metro region has been improving its storm water controls in recent years. Here are examples of what communities have done here and in other parts of the country.

Among the improvements in the region:

New laws that require local governments to study their flood plains to better identify properties at risk.

New laws that require developers to better control runoff downstream.

Growing use of storm water utilities to fund repairs and upgrades of drainage features.

Other areas of the country are introducing creative measures, including:

Laws requiring that more water be captured on site.

The use of trees and other plants to soak up rainwater on site.

Extensive use of porous pavement.

Using plants on rooftops to absorb rain.

In this series

Today: More pavement means higher streams. Explosive growth, poor planning and neglected infrastructure have helped turn even unremarkable rainstorms into property-wrecking events in metro Atlanta.

Monday: Homeowners often bear the cost of runoff management. Some metro counties, cities and homeowners associations resist repairing storm water infrastructure in subdivisions.

Tuesday: While local governments clean up their act and take a tougher stance on controlling runoff, the state and federal government are pushing back.

Next Sunday: Sitting at the juncture of five creeks, in the bull's-eye of a suburban building boom, Austell has suffered from the metro region's flood planning shortfalls for years.

Next Monday: What now? A closer look at solutions. Some local governments across the country have taken a more aggressive approach to handling storm water.

On ajc.com/metro

Go online for an in-depth map of metro Atlanta highlighting areas that have the most extensive amount of impervious surface and are most susceptible to flash flooding.

Source: Environmental Protection Agency

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

How we got the story

For this story, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution interviewed more than 60 homeowners, local and state officials, engineers and policy experts, and reviewed state storm water permits and annual reports filed by 15 metro Atlanta cities and counties.

The newspaper performed its own analysis of the effect of development on metro Atlanta streams, using monitoring data provided by the U.S. Geological Survey.

The analysis looked at the effect of impervious surface --- hard surfaces such as pavement or roofs that prevent rainwater from soaking into the soil --- on stream flashiness. Flashiness is the speed and height of peak stream flows during a rainstorm. The more "flashy" the stream, the more susceptible it is to flash flooding.

The AJC estimated impervious surface from Atlanta Regional Commission land use maps using a land use model that set an average impervious surface percent for different land uses. For example, single-family residential areas average 20 percent impervious surface, while commercial areas average 85 percent impervious surface.

To measure stream flashiness, the AJC used the Richards-Baker flashiness index, computed by dividing the sum of differences between daily median stream flow by the sum of daily averages for each year, 1999 through 2009. The analysis used daily stream flow data from 19 Geological Survey stream gauges in the metro area.

The analysis found that differences in impervious surface explain more than 70 percent of differences in stream flashiness among the 19 gauge sites. The analysis also found that, as impervious surface reached 30 percent or more, it had an increasingly dramatic impact on stream flashiness.


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## mhays (Sep 12, 2002)

Being from Seattle I'm used to light rain, but heavy rain is a foreign concept. 

In high school, about 35 of us flew to Florida to study marine biology for two weeks overlapping spring break. At one point we stayed in a scout camp. There was a storm one night. The biology teacher woke everyone up at 3:00 am so that we Seattle kids could experience a "real" storm. 

20 years later I went to Hong Kong. That's the worst rain I've ever been in...I'd run across the street to another awning, and stand there with rivulets running off me. It was like taking a shower. 

A couple days before that I took a ferry to Macau. A readerboard in the waiting area warned of a "Level 3" typhoon coming but nobody seemed to care, and I'd already paid, so I went anyway. No luggage because it was a day trip. I spent the wettest day of my life walking around the older half of Macau vaguely noticing that the shops were mostly closed with their roll doors down, and occasional branches and laundry littered the street. Then, being an idiot apparently, started wandering toward the ferry terminal for the ride back. It turned out the typhoon had reached "Level 8" and the ferries were cancelled. They kept pushing the time back hour by hour, a TV crew interviewed some of the people near me, etc. I ended up with a hotel room in each city that night. Not before arousing the suspicion of the staff at a highly-fortified house overlooking the harbor, who asked who I was and offered a "ride".


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Yes ... the tropical downpours can get quite insane! The Pacific NW is wet, but it doesn't rain the same way.


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## Mr. Uncut (Jan 13, 2008)

Yes HK thunderstorms a quite impressive, but more in impressive are the supercell storms in the Plains and central europe! The flashfloods are horrible and when hail is involved, things can get dangerous!
The worst thunderstorm i expirienced in HK was a squall line resulting from Typhoon Sanvu back in 2005!
The worst Storm i ever expirienced generally was a HP-Supercell near Dallas, TX with extreme big hailstones, a tornado, downburst, extreme gusts and after the hailstorm intensive flashfloods!


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

We don't usually get hail and tornadoes even with the worst tropical storms, but we can easily get 200mm of rain in a few hours during one of these downpours. The city doesn't usually flood except a few select urban areas but generally, the drainage pipes are well-designed to handle the rain.


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## Dimethyltryptamine (Aug 22, 2009)

Melbourne has just had what is suggested to be the "Storm of the Century". Here's some pictures, and videos. At the time, I was stuck up Eureka Tower.

This is the storm rolling in over the suburbs.











after the storm ripped through the city, the clouds hovered amidst the buildings











Here is the hail covered train tracks heading into Flinders Street Station











After being told to get out of the tower due to them having problems with electricity, we found that a lot of the streets of Melbourne were flooded


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## 863552 (Jan 27, 2010)

^^

It was hectic!


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## goschio (Dec 2, 2002)

^
What a nice storm. They should be glad about the rainfall.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Did the hail clog the sewers, causing the flooding? How much precipitation fell?


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## Dimethyltryptamine (Aug 22, 2009)

It's said that 36 millimeters of rain fell over the city. As for the clogging of drains; Melbourne has tree-lined streets which, with the assistance of heavy rain, hail and strong winds, blew the leaves off the trees and thus clogged the drains.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Dimethyltryptamine said:


> It's said that 36 millimeters of rain fell over the city. As for the clogging of drains; Melbourne has tree-lined streets which, with the assistance of heavy rain, hail and strong winds, blew the leaves off the trees and thus clogged the drains.


36mm isn't actually a lot of rain at all .. but I guess the typical leaves clogging sewers is always the culprit.


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## 863552 (Jan 27, 2010)

It wasover 100mlls in 2 days.


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## badman814 (Jun 28, 2008)

Wow, that's surprising!
I have actually experienced 1000mm/day rainfall but the town was not in this much of flood.


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## gladisimo (Dec 11, 2006)

What is that white crud on top of the water? Is it just unmelted hailstones?

From the pictures it almost looks like cracked concrete, at first I thought the cars sunk in somehow!


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## Dimethyltryptamine (Aug 22, 2009)

Lol, yeah it's hail that hadn't quite melted, mixed with leaves.


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## Chicagoago (Dec 2, 2005)

The middle sections of the USA tend to get unusually strong and severe storms because of its unique geography. There is no natural mountian chain or land features that stop the cold arctic air from coming down and smashing into the wam tropical air as it moves up.

Every once in awhile we get derecho's here. Insanely high amounts of rain, lightning and wind that slam through in a bow shape and cover up to hundreds of KM for extended periods of time. You normally have ample warning that they're coming, sometimes up to 12 hours.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derecho

I remember one growing up in Iowa back in 1998. My dad and I were helping my Uncle move and didn't even see all the reports that one of these was closing in. We were halfway home with the sirens went off, everything went black, and boy did we drive as fast as we could and ran like hell into the basement. Almost 200kph winds tore through a massive swath of the state and caused extreme chaos for a few days.

We had another one in Chicago about a year and a half ago:

Massive line of storms stretching over 100KM and covering the entire metro area

Air raid sirens (to warn of extreme weather) sounded over the entire city for only the second time since WWII

90,000 lightning strokes counted over the metro area in a little over 2 hours.

10,000 lightning strokes hit the central business district, one of the most concentrated levels of lightning ever detected on earth

800 lightning strokes per minute in the city, multiple fires

160KPH winds over the city, airports shut down and evacuated, a million without power

3 tornadoes, but amazingly only 25mm of rain because the storms blew through so fast


One of those rare moments when 10 million people are all cowered underground at the same time all drawn to the same event. It certainly gave everyone something to talk about the next day!

The lightning and thunder was something I'd never experienced in my life. The weather experts said the storm was completely in a level of its own as far as lightning. Just to think that 13 lightning strikes a SECOND were hitting the city. It was the loudest thing I've ever heard. Like a freight train going on for 30 minutes - trees crashing, very close lightning strikes hitting at all times. It was also very strange that it had an unheard of number of positively charged strikes - the very powerful and very dangerous kind. I normally love storms, but when I saw the warning map on TV at the restaurant we were in that had the entire metro shaded red with tornado warnings, I knew it was serious.


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## Chicagoago (Dec 2, 2005)

One of the worst rainfall events every in my state of Iowa (USA Midwest) was in the summer of 1993.

During the summer months of June, July and August,* almost 1,000 mm of rainfall *hit a massive area that normally only sees a small fraction of that.

61,000 square KM of land was covered with water for up to 3 months. Over 150 main rivers in the central USA were in flood stage at the same time, 10,000 houses destroyed, lots of deaths, dozens of cities and towns completely underwater, and hundreds of levies destroyed.

In our state capital of Des Moines - over 250,000 people were without water for weeks on end, power was cut, roads were underwater for months, a disaster area was declared and massive amounts of rain cause intense flooding for almost everyone.

That was one CRAZY summer. We'd normally see rains of up to 25mm come through every few weeks or so. That summer had up to 150mm of rain falling in storms that came through like express trains almost every day or every other day.


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## Mr. Uncut (Jan 13, 2008)

Chicagoago said:


> The middle sections of the USA tend to get unusually strong and severe storms because of its unique geography. There is no natural mountian chain or land features that stop the cold arctic air from coming down and smashing into the wam tropical air as it moves up.
> 
> Every once in awhile we get derecho's here. Insanely high amounts of rain, lightning and wind that slam through in a bow shape and cover up to hundreds of KM for extended periods of time. You normally have ample warning that they're coming, sometimes up to 12 hours.
> 
> ...


I know that derecho events (squall lines!) from Dallas, TX where i have a house. During spring time supercells are very common in Texas and OK as a result of dry cool air in the upper layers from Canada and moist hot air on the ground from the gulf, they causing tornados and hailstorms. Is Chicago also a risky area in terms of supercells? What were the causes of the tornados in ur area? Supercells, derecho events or common thunderstorms?


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## Chicagoago (Dec 2, 2005)

Mr. Uncut said:


> I know that derecho events (squall lines!) from Dallas, TX where i have a house. During spring time supercells are very common in Texas and OK as a result of dry cool air in the upper layers from Canada and moist hot air on the ground from the gulf, they causing tornados and hailstorms. Is Chicago also a risky area in terms of supercells? What were the causes of the tornados in ur area? Supercells, derecho events or common thunderstorms?



Chicago is in an area that sees lots of violent storms like Dallas. Dallas probably sees a few more though. Up here the most powerful severe storms and tornadoes come from supercells. 

Huge lines of storms, although not a lot of derechos, is probably the most common types of storms up here though. You normally know they're coming up to 12 hours before they hit. Usually if it's a REALLY strong line of storms, people will usually pay attention to the TV and computer and actually follow the storms minute by minute for an hour or so before they hit. They'll cut into all the TV and warn people, sound sirens, interrupt radio, etc. 

One thing we don't have as much of as other areas on the west coast, east coast, and Europe is the just minor lines of storms and gentle cells that come through. More often than not, if it's going to storm, they're going to be fairly violent in the Midwest.


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## city_thing (May 25, 2006)

LOL @ Dimethyltryptamine being outside a gay sauna... I suppose it's a nice place to keep out of the rain :naughty:



>


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Calgary storm downs trees, power lines and prompts power outages *
CTV _Excerpt_
June 14, 2022 

Calgary was hit with another deluge of rain on Tuesday, along with strong wind gusts that toppled trees and downed power lines. 

The wind and rain come one day after the City of Calgary declared a state of local emergency, and announced several precautionary steps that would be taken to prepare for the possibility of flooding, including the lowering of the Glenmore Reservoir and the creation of a berm on Memorial Drive.

Environment and Climate Change Canada issued both a wind warning and a rainfall warning for Calgary on Tuesday, advising strong wind gusts up to 90 km/h were expected.

More : Calgary storm downs trees, power lines and prompts power outages


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

* As Montreal cleans up from heavy rains, mayor vows to fight off future floods* 
CBC _Excerpt_
June 17, 2022 

Montreal was a mess on Thursday.

After about 40 millimetres of rain fell, streets were flooded, part of the Metro system temporarily shut down and sewer covers popped open.

On Friday, staff at a downtown day shelter for Indigenous people experiencing homelessness were still scrambling to clean up while throwing out boxes and bags of donated clothes which were ruined by water that had seeped into the building.

More : https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/flooding-montreal-infrastructure-sewers-1.6492349


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