Tropical Depression Barry’s 14.58” of rain in Arkansas breaks all-time state record – Arkansas becomes fifth U.S. state to set tropical storm rainfall record in past two years
By Dr. Jeff Masters
17 July 2019
(Weather Underground) – Rainfall from Tropical Depression Barry deluged southwest Arkansas over the past three days, with the 14.58” that fell at Murfreesboro on July 14 – 16 breaking the all-time state record for precipitation from a tropical cyclone. Barry’s heavy rains that fell over southwest Arkansas inundated multiple highways, including I-30, and prompted four high-water rescues, according to weather.com. The heaviest rains from Barry have been in Louisiana, though, with 23.58” at Beauregard.
Update: Dierks, Arkansas reported a 24-hour rainfall amount of 16.17″ July 15 – 16, 2019, from Tropical Depression Barry, with an additional 0.42″ falling during the previous three days, potentially from Barry. The storm total of 16.17 – 16.59″ thus establishes a new all-time state record for rain from a tropical cyclone.
On Tuesday, the heavy rains of Barry reached all the way into Michigan–a state unaccustomed to seeing tropical cyclone impacts. Heavy rains obscured visibility on I-96 north of Ann Arbor, causing a 40+ car pile-up that injured six people, and over 4” of rain fell in less than two hours at stations in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti–not far below the all-time state tropical cyclone precipitation record of 6.07” set in 1961 from Hurricane Carla.
Barry’s rainfall record in Arkansas is the fifth state all-time tropical cyclone precipitation record to fall in a span of less than two years, which is a pretty remarkable pace of record-breaking, since all-time state records are difficult to break. [more]
Barry’s 14.58” of Rain in Arkansas Breaks All-Time State Record
Deluged by Barry, Arkansas becomes fifth state to set tropical storm rainfall record in past two years
By Jason Samenow
17 July 2019
(The Washington Post) – Louisiana grabbed many of the headlines from former hurricane Barry. But the super-soggy storm made history in Arkansas, where it unloaded over 16 inches of rain, a record for a tropical weather system in the Razorback State.
Arkansas is now the fifth state to post a new tropical storm or hurricane rainfall record since 2017, joining Texas, Hawaii, North Carolina and South Carolina. These exceptional rainstorms keep happening and appear to be part of a trend toward more extreme events connected to climate change. […]
Much of Barry’s rain hit Arkansas on Monday and Tuesday, and the torrents unleashed severe flash flooding in the southwest part of the state. Flooding cut off access to the main road into Dierks while many businesses were engulfed by floodwaters in the city of Nashville, about 20 miles to the southeast. Water poured into Nashville’s city hall, and both the city’s police station and jail were submerged. [more]
