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Historical High Precipitation Days/Events


Chicago WX

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Half of Milwaukee's wettest days have been in the last 17 years, pretty good indication of the likelihood that rainfall is one of the extremes that is having a tendency to increase as time goes on (whether or not it is correlated with one of the forbidden topics on this board).

 

In these parts, I would consider 2.00" in a calendar day to be the threshold for an impressively heavy rainstorm/precip event. Looking over the years....

 

Calendar day precipitation of 2.00"+....Detroit, MI

1870s- 8 *excludes 1870-73

1880s- 5

1890s- 5

1900s- 11

1910s- 3

1920s- 4

1930s- 8

1940s- 6

1950s- 8

1960s- 9

1970s- 2

1980s- 7

1990s- 7

2000s- 6

2010s- 4 *thru 8/2014

 

Similiar to snowfall...precipitation as a whole is increasing....however...I can find no necessary correlation to the extreme 1-day totals. In fact, while much is said about how the extreme 1 and 2 days snowfall events are lacking for Detroit in this otherwise insanely snowy stretch, at the very least...it is shown that moderate to heavy snow events are increasing rapidly. With precipitation in general, it is increasing....but even the 1"+ calendar day events are showing no necessary increase, rather there really is no trend one way or another, its a year by year thing.

 

One thing I find interesting, at least locally, is that the 1930s, which are by far the driest decade on record for Detroit (some 4" below the longterm mean), and includes probably one of the nations most well-known droughts...were in the average range for heavy rainstorms. Same with heavy snowstorms, the 1930s had about the average longterm amount, though annual snowfall itself was about 9" below the longterm avg. This alone tells me that the weather pattens in general were quite different during those dustbowl days.

 

Calendar day precipitation of 1.00"+....Detroit, MI

1870s- 46 *excludes 1870-73

1880s- 49

1890s- 50

1900s- 57

1910s- 46

1920s- 46

1930s- 44

1940s- 51

1950s- 48

1960s- 63

1970s- 40

1980s- 63

1990s- 49

2000s- 56

2010s- 33 *thru 8/2014

 

**************************************************************************

The heaviest days for Milwaukee show that the 1990s did have an unusually high number in the 1990s, but overall no crazy trend one way or the other.

 

Calendar day precipitation of 2.00"+....Milwaukee, WI

1870s- 8 *excludes 1870

1880s- 5

1890s- 7

1900s- 5

1910s- 9

1920s- 7

1930s- 9

1940s- 5

1950s- 11

1960s- 9

1970s- 6

1980s- 9

1990s- 15

2000s- 10

2010s- 4 *thru 8/2014

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