Here are 16 Rainfall facts.
1-5 Rainfall Facts
1. In 2011 sea levels around the world dropped by almost a cm due to massive rainfalls across Australia. – Source
2. The United Arab Emirates seriously considered building an artificial mountain to improve rainfall. – Source
3. Despite an annual rainfall of just three inches, Yuma, AZ produces 90% of the United States’ lettuce during the winter. – Source
4. There is an English word for the scent that is produced during rainfall on dry soil: “Petrichor”. – Source
5. There are parts of the Atacama Desert in Chile that have never received recorded rainfall. – Source
6-10 Rainfall Facts
6. One of the justifications for the settlement of the Great Plains in the USA and wheat growing on marginal land in South Australia was the belief that “rain follows the plow” i.e. increased human settlement and cultivation of soil would result in an increased rainfall over time. – Source
7. The Atacama Desert gets an average rainfall of 1 millimeter (.04 inches) per year and had not had any significant rainfall in over 400 years, until July 2011, when it received a whopping 80 centimeters (31.5 inches). – Source
8. There’s a 30 square km sand dune in Japan that only doesn’t qualify as a desert due to rainfall. – Source
9. Mawsynram, a village in India, gets an average of 11,873 mm (467 in) of rain per year, making it the world’s wettest place. – Source
10. Recent high-resolution climate modeling has led researchers to theorize that the Mayan Empire collapsed because they converted so much of their forest land into cropland, leading to reduced evapotranspiration and thus rainfall, magnifying the effects of a pre-existing drought. – Source
11-16 Rainfall Facts
11. There are entire countries whose rainfall will never reach the sea. – Source
12. The Salton Sea was created by accident in 1905, as a result of a canal project combined with flooding as a result of rainfall. – Source
13. In 1975 a massive hydroelectric dam in China failed after once-in-a-2000-years rainfall, releasing a gigantic wave that led to the deaths of 171,000 people. – Source
14. Humidity can be so low on earth, that rainfall from thunderstorms would evaporate before touching the ground, causing fires in the USA, proper term, “virga.” – Source
15. The distribution of precipitation very closely matches the exponential distribution which indicates that the probability of receiving larger rainfall amounts decreases exponentially as the rainfall amounts become larger. – Source
16. The 3 rainfall warning color codes mean awareness, preparedness and emergency (yellow, orange and red). – Source
