An amazing downpour in north Charlotte

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The line of heavy showers and thunderstorms that crossed the Carolinas last Thursday triggered flash flooding in Boone and several other locations in the mountains, but it was responsible for a staggering rainfall number in Charlotte, too.

I thank Sharon Foote of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services for this report.

Many of you know that Storm Water Services monitors automated gauges along a number of creeks in the area. Those gauges alert officials to possible flooding.

Foote passes along a measurement from the gauge at Mallard Creek Elementary School around 8:20 p.m. last Thursday, when the line of storms was crossing Charlotte.

During a span of about three minutes, according to the gauge, 0.45 inches of rain fell. That's nearly a half-inch of rain in three minutes. Or, converting it to an hourly rate, we're talking about 9 inches per hour.

Fortunately, the storms moved through quickly.  There was one other three-minute period when about .15 of an inch fell, but for the most part, rainfall rates were modest.  The total from the storm was a bit more than 1 inch.

The generally-recognized world record for most rainfall in one minute is 1.5 inches, on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe in 1970.