As we'll see this weekend, how much rain a tropical system wrings out doesn't depend on how strong it is.
A man and his wife wave they are ok as a Cajun Navy boat checks on flood victims on highway 124 on Sept. 20, 2019, in Beaumont, Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott has declared much of Southeast Texas disaster areas after heavy rain and flooding from the remnants of Tropical Depression Imelda dumped more than two feet of water across some areas. However, wind intensity has little to do with its ability to produce heavy rainfall.
from 1963 to 2012 were from rainfall flooding. Strong winds contributed to only 8% of the deaths during that time. The majority of the deaths – 49% – were from storm surge.that we've all grown accustomed to mean little for this particular danger. Instead, the amount of rain a tropical depression, tropical storm or hurricane can produce is a function of its forward speed. The slower it moves, the more incredible the rainfall amounts, as you can see in the graph below.