Torrents of rain that began before dawn on Tuesday, July 26, gave St. Louis, Missouri, its highest calendar-day total since records began in 1873. And the deadly event is just the latest example of a well-established trend of intensifying downpours in many places across the globe.
The official reporting site at Lambert International Airport received 8.6 inches of rain from midnight to 11 a.m. Central Standard Time on Tuesday. (Standard time is used year-round to separate calendar days for meteorological data purposes.) Another 0.46 inch had been recorded just before midnight CST on Monday, bringing the total for July 25-26 to 9.04 inches as of 11 a.m. CST Tuesday.
The predawn onset of the storms meant that many residents were startled awake by floodwaters or caught on highways during early commutes. Dozens of water rescues were carried out across the area. The storm closed Interstate 70 and many other key roads across the St. Louis area throughout the morning, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. At least one death has been reported as of Tuesday evening, a person pulled from an inundated vehicle.
More heavy rain is possible early Wednesday, although the storms in that round are expected to keep moving rather than stalling out.
See moreRecord rain and flooding destroys a non-profit that caters to 14,000 students across St. Louis. The Little Bit Foundation’s building is now a total loss just weeks before the school year starts. pic.twitter.com/PyPQj6HyZp— Melanie Johnson (@MelJohnsonTV) July 27, 2022
Below are several records set in Tuesday’s brief but intense deluge. We’ll update this information after final data for Tuesday a …