Source: Facebook/US National Weather Service Lake Charles Louisiana
Twenty-nine inches of rain in a day is not a typo. A rain gauge three miles southeast of Cottonport clocked 29.06 inches in a 24-hour stretch on Thursday, a total meteorologists say sets a new Louisiana state record. The torrent, tied to the lingering remnants of Tropical Storm Arthur, swamped low-lying roads and left parts of central Louisiana literally standing in water. National Weather Service staff and the Louisiana state climatologist inspected the volunteer CoCoRaHS gauge in person and confirmed the reading, while NOAA’s climate archives will handle the final verification. Down the road in New Orleans, the airport still managed to pile up more than eight inches during the same event.
How the record was verified
Meteorologists from the National Weather Service office in Lake Charles and State Climatologist Jay Grymes signed off on the 29.06-inch total after a site visit to the volunteer CoCoRaHS station, according to WAFB. Gauge owner Matt Carnicle told the station he had to empty the instrument twice as the water neared its capacity, a detail that raised eyebrows but held up under scrutiny. Officials pointed out that multiple nearby stations also reported more than 20 inches, which boosted confidence that the monster reading was real and not a fluke. Video coverage first highlighted by WWLTV shows the on-site inspection and the gauge overtopping from the deluge.
Rainfall footprint and other totals
The storm summary from the Weather Prediction Center lists Cottonport at 29.06 inches, Plaucheville at 22.53 inches, Simmesport at 17.66 inches and New Orleans International at 8.08 inches. The numbers sketch out a bull’s-eye of extreme rain from central parishes toward the coast. The Weather Prediction Center also flagged torrential hourly rainfall rates and widespread flood warnings that lit up the region while Arthur’s leftovers parked overhead.
Why meteorologists say this was extreme…