Over Six Feet of Rain Has Swamped Parts of the South the Past 12 Months

Jon Erdman
Published: April 29,2016

Over the past 12 months, parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Alabama and the Florida panhandle have picked up over six feet of precipitation, and there's more heavy rain on the way for some of these waterlogged locations.
Through April 26, 2016, just over one dozen locations in the South had picked up over 72 inches of precipitation since late April 2015, including:

• League City, Texas (NWS-Houston office): 82.86 inches
• Mobile, Alabama: 82.10 inches
• Baton Rouge, Louisiana: 80.41 inches
• Pensacola, Florida: 75.76 inches
• Monroe, Louisiana: 74.11 inches

Rainfall totals over a 12-month period ending April 26, 2016 over the southern U.S. Locations highlighted by a blue box have all picked up at least 72 inches (6 feet) of precipitation over that period.
(SERCC)

Certainly the Gulf Coast and Deep South see spells of locally heavy rain every year, thanks to slow-moving thunderstorm clusters and landfalling tropical cyclones.
But these 12-month totals are on par with average yearly rainfall in wetter parts of Puerto Rico, not the southern mainland United States.
Some precipitation surpluses in the southern Plains, Lower Mississippi Valley, and Southeast over the past 12 months are over 20 inches.

Precipitation departure from average, in inches, over the 12-month period ending April 26, 2016 in the southern U.S. Pink-shaded areas have at least 20-inch precipitation surpluses since late April 2015.
(HPRCC)

The most incredible surplus we could find was McAlester, Oklahoma, in the southeast part of the Sooner State.
Not only have they picked up over six feet of precipitation, but their 12-month surplus is a whopping 32.5 inches, over 2.5 feet above their average.

Daily precipitation (black bars, left Y axis), average accumulated precipitation (green area, right Y axis) and actual accumulated precipitation (top of blue area, right Y axis) over the 12-month period ending April 26, 2016 in McAlester, Oklahoma. The blue area indicates the precipitation surplus since late April 2015 (32.5 inches).

According to the Southeast Regional Climate Center, a number of locations in the central U.S. had their wettest "12-month period ending April 26" on record, not just restricted to the Deep South:

Some Cities With Record Wet "12-Month Periods Ending April 26"

	12-month rainfall ending April 26, 2016 (inches)	Departure from average (inches)
Austin (Bergstrom), Texas	58.21	+26.06
Dallas-Ft. Worth	59.26	+23.12
Houston (Bush)	74.32	+24.55
Monroe, Louisiana	74.11	+20.09
Okla. City, Oklahoma	57.15	+20.68
Rapid City, South Dakota	27.47	+11.18
St. Louis	56.63	+15.76
Topeka, Kansas	53.21	+16.75

It's no wonder we've seen a number of flood events since last spring, including most recently, a massive Houston flash flood swamping at least 3,500 homes and, a small-scale but destructive flash flood in Gulfport and Biloxi, Mississippi.
(MORE: Over a Dozen Flash Floods | Is Houston America's Flood Capital?)
Unfortunately, more locally heavy rain is on the way into the upcoming weekend in parts of these rain-fatigued areas.
Parts of eastern Texas, eastern Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, not to mention Nebraska and Kansas, may see over three inches of rain through the weekend.
(MORE: Severe Weather, Flash Flood Forecast)

Rainfall Forecast Through Sunday Night

With the exception of a mid-late summer 2015 "flash drought", this exceptional wet period also helped erase what had been a multi-year drought in the southern Plains, which kicked into gear in late 2010.

Time series of drought severity coverage area in Texas from 2010 to late April 2016. Darker colors correspond to areas of worst drought.

MORE: Houston Flood (April 2016)