World: Greatest Sixty-Minute (One Hour) Rainfall

References

Krause and Flood, 1997: Weather and Climate Extremes, US Army Corps of Engineers Topographic Engineering Center pp. 89; , Lott, 1954: The world-record 42-minute Holt, Missouri rainstorm, Monthly Weather Review, 82(2), pp. 50-59; Schlatter, 1991: Weather queries, Weatherwise, 44(4).

Discussion

G.A. Lott (1954) examined the data associated with this storm and concluded that the storm occurred "... as a local intensification of a long, narrow, warm sector convective system." Lott displayed an isohyetal map of the region showing the results of a Corps of Engineers bucket survey conducted shortly after the storm. The surrounding region demonstrated similar high precipitation totals. Schlatter notes that the storm had very strong inflow (estimates at nearly 25 m/s) of very moist air (dew point at 23°C)