It’s hard to imagine what 15 trillion gallons looks like. Let’s try.
It’s hard to fathom the amount of rainfall that’s fallen in Houston and its surrounding areas over the past few days. Some weather stations in the region have recorded 30 to 40 inches (more than 3 feet!) , and more rain is on the way. That amount of rain means Houston’s highways now look more like rivers and 30,000 people need temporary shelter.
Here’s another way to think about the scale of rain dumped by the remnants of Hurricane Harvey. According to meteorologist Ryan Maue at WeatherBell, as of Monday afternoon, around 14 trillion to 15 trillion gallons of water had fallen on Houston and its surrounding areas. (The calculation is simple, he says on Twitter: It’s depth of rain multiplied by the number of square miles covered .) And 5 trillion more gallons are still to come.
We wondered what 14 trillion to 15 trillion gallons would look like in one giant raindrop. Its size is reminiscent of a mushroom cloud.
Harvey’s total rainfall dwarfs the amount of rain dumped over Louisiana and Mississippi during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. That storm produced 6.56 trillion gallons over those states, the Washington Post’s Jason Samenow explains . (Which goes to show how different Katrina and Harvey are. Katrina brought destruction via storm surge and the crumbling of New Orleans levees. Harvey stalled over the coast after making landfall.)
For reference, here’s Harvey’s rainwater over Manhattan:
And over Washington, DC:
