‘Biblical rain’: NE Ohio saw nearly 20 billion gallons of water Thursday

(WJW) – Fox 8 Meteorologist Scott Sabol says parts of Northeast Ohio experienced “ biblical rain ” Thursday night.

The downpours and flash flooding came after areas of Northeast Ohio just saw four tornados on Tuesday.

According to Sabol, on Thursday night about 570 square miles were covered with at least 2 inches of rain and about 20 square miles experienced at least 6 inches of rain.

That adds up to almost 20 billion gallons of water in those areas alone!

Here’s a list of rain reports from the National Weather Service:

According to Sabol the band of “monstrous rain” came from the outer northwest remnants of Tropical Storm Debby.

The stalled nature of Thursday’s rain was due to Debby’s movement north in Pennsylvania.

“Imagine riding a roller coaster,” Sabol said. “You move quickly up one side, you slow down at the top and quickly move down the other side. Our forecast yesterday highlighted pockets of 1 to 2+ inches of rain in these areas. However, everything slowed. So the band of storms yesterday evening produced 3 to 7 inches of rain.”

All of this rain occurred in about 5 hours.

In the graphic below, the areas shaded in green, pink, brown and yellow are the areas with at least 2 inches of rain. Yellow and blue areas are between 5 and 6 inches of rain.

Click here for more information about Thursday night’s heavy rain rescues.

Click here for the full NE Ohio forecast.

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