Record-shattering rains continue to hammer parts of Texas after Hurricane Harvey swept through the region over the weekend. The rain is creating devastating and life-threatening flooding in Houston, and experts say it may only get worse.
Some areas in Texas have received over 1,000 millimeters of rain since the hurricane hit Friday, according to the National Weather Network and that amount could reach 1,270 mm by the end of the week. This amount is more than the average rainfall Houston gets in a year.
So far, just the rain that has already fallen across the greater Houston area and Southeast Texas tallies to nine trillion gallons. The 9 trillion gallons of water dispensed so far is enough to fill the entire Great Salt Lake in Salt Lake City twice!
Hundreds of schools across southwestern Texas remained closed Tuesday as the state continued to deal with the worst natural disaster in its history, with many students, teachers, and administrators still caged in by flooded roadways. The Texas Education Agency said 181 school districts canceled or delayed schools.
At an apartment building in Houston, about 200 students, including some from the University of Houston, were stranded Sunday night without power, with water rising on the first floor and into cars in the parking lot.
There is a proven link known as the Clausius-Clapeyron equation that shows that for every half a degree Celsius in warming, there is about a 3% increase in atmospheric moisture content.
The amount of water could fill 2.3 percent of the volume of the mountain range containing Mount Everest in Nepal and is enough to occupy 14.2 million Empire State Buildings. And about the same number of Olympic swimming pools.