Deadly Flooding Rainfall Over Texas And Tropical Storm Bonnie Measured From Space

Deadly Flooding Rainfall Over Texas And Tropical Storm Bonnie Measured From Space

Heavy rainfall caused deadly flooding in southeastern Texas. At least 4 people have been killed and continuing rainfall is expected to cause historic flooding in that area. Meanwhile, dissipating Tropical storm Bonnie is soaking the South Carolina coast, southeastern North Carolina and eastern Georgia on this Memorial Day weekend. Some flooding is expected as dissipating tropical storm Bonnie's rainfall moves northeastward along the coast.

This analysis of liquid precipitation from space was accomplished by using merged satellite rainfall data from the TRMM Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA). The TRMM satellite collected over 17 years of precipitation data from late 1997 to April 2015. Real-time precipitation data called 3B42RT are still being computed by climatological inter-calibration based on data collected by TRMM. This TMPA analysis indicates that extreme rainfall over Texas has dropped more than 400 mm (15.7 inches) in a large part of the state. Rainfall totals over parts of South Carolina were already reaching over 127 mm (5 inches).

Images and caption by Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC)