Analysis of the Extreme Rainfall over the State of Texas in 2015

Texas lies at the crossroads of large-scale weather patterns and is affected by what is happening in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, particularly the El Niño and La Niña cycles. Texas suffered from severe rain and flash floods that caused an estimated 35 trillion gallons of water to fall on Texas, which was enough to cover the entire state in eight inches of water. In this study, an analysis was conducted using a network of approximately 1,011 rain gauges maintained by the National Climatic Data Center NCDC and the United States Geological Survey covering the state of Texas. These stations provide data that are typically recorded at 15- to 60-minute intervals from automated or manual readings. In addition, precipitation measurements were estimated by 13 WSR-88D Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler Next Generation Weather Radar NEXRAD. Radar data are available for 152,366 grids at 4 × 4 km covering the entire state of Texas. In general, numerous stations recorded rainfall that indicated that 2015 was the wettest year in the state’s record history. The results of rain gauges and weather radar show that May and October were the wettest months in 2015 respectively, while the months with the least rainfall were April, November and June respectively. About have the rain gauges broke their historical record in 2015.