How many inches of rain will Brownsville get during Hurricane Dolly?

Should the 3rd option be 10" or more?

I believe (inclusive) means that any amount over 10 inches
but still under 11 inches is covered in category 5-10 inches.

That is how I read it anyways. . .

http://www.weather.com/newscenter/hurricanecentral/update/index.html

rainfall numbers

Sorry - should have noted that I changed the last option outcome from 10 inches or more to 11 inches or more.

Nice question aregine :-D

Interesting question, Aregine.
I always am fascinated by the potential fury of Mother nature.

Recent coverage (http://apnews.excite.com/article/20080724/D9249LTO0.html) describe rain amounts in Brownsville so far are 6-12 inches with another 3-7 expected overnight. All settlement requests provide quotes of "up to 12 inches" or "at least 12 in some areas". Certainly, some areas in Brownsville received 12 inches, some only received 6. aregine, welcome to what is likely going to be your first executive decision here.

Two decisions should be made. First, should additional rain count? Second, how do you calculate a total amount of rain in an area measuring 80 square miles when it varies from one end to the next?

My $0.02. Once you decide whether "additional rain" should be counted, average the lowest and highest.

Ahhh, this is going to be fun. You can tell I have some free time on my hands this morning. :)

The question is "How many inches of rain will Brownsville get during Hurricane Dolly?" So, one could say that only the rain that fell during the time Dolly was a hurricane as it passed over, through, etc. Brownsville should be considered, and not any time when it was Dolly was a Tropical Storm. But then again, in the background information, it is stated... "A hurricane is heading towards the Texas/Mexico border. How many inches of rain will Brownsville receive from this storm?" Regardless, as swilson noted, rainfall can vary considerably over a given area. I recommend the official National Weather Service's reporting station for Brownsville, which is KBRO be used. Here is a link to an ongoing weather history for Brownsville, covering 3 days, with an hour dropping off, as the latest hour is added. Better hurry. :)

http://www.weather.gov/data/obhistory/KBRO.html

I am not a meteorologist, but I do know a bit about weather, and if nothing else.... I have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express a few times. :)

@ swilson

When I’ve looked at the news it certainly seems that parts of Brownsville are getting at least 11 inches, so I think the last choice wins.

Dad helped me Google this under the topic of “Hurricane Dolly rainfall amounts” and we found Bulletin # 15 from the National Hurricane Center that seems to give the best information…

000
WTNT34 KNHC 241440
TCPAT4
BULLETIN
TROPICAL STORM DOLLY ADVISORY NUMBER 17
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL042008
1000 AM CDT THU JUL 24 2008

…

DOLLY IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE TOTAL RAINFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 8 TO 12
INCHES...WITH ISOLATED AMOUNTS OF 20 INCHES...OVER PORTIONS OF
SOUTH TEXAS AND NORTHEASTERN MEXICO. THESE RAINS ARE VERY LIKELY TO
CAUSE WIDESPREAD FLOODING.

ISOLATED TORNADOES ARE POSSIBLE OVER SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS TODAY.

REPEATING THE 1000 AM CDT POSITION...27.5 N...99.3 W. MOVEMENT
TOWARD...WEST-NORTHWEST NEAR 9 MPH. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...45
MPH. MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...992 MB.

AN INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE
CENTER AT 100 PM CDT FOLLOWED BY THE NEXT COMPLETE ADVISORY AT 400
PM CDT.

$$
FORECASTER AVILA

So I’m voting for the last option to be the winner.

This has already settled, so it hardly matters, but the rules say we should use weather.gov first for weather settlements -- that way we don't argue about what "part" of brownsville, its just the part they measure (the airport in this case). They appear to show about 16 inches, so I don't disagree with the settlement at all.. Just saying it was maybe more straightforward than it first appeared.

Brownsville weather.gov: http://www.weather.gov/data/obhistory/KBRO.html
Weather Rules: http://www.hubdub.com/public/goodquestion
* Should the question creator not specify the settlement source, then government meteorological websites will be considered to be the definitive news source. For example, http://www.weather.gov/ and http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/ will be used as the definitive weather sources for the United States and the United Kingdom, respectively. A directory of similar national meteorological websites can be found through the World Meteorological Organization http://www.wmo.ch/pages/index_en.html

I think this was settled incorrectly...

When I add up the rainfall from the NOAA site, I don't get anywhere close to 11 inches.

Here's another related site (same airport) -- often used to assist in these settlements:

<http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KBRO/2008/7/23/DailyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA>


It shows 6.68 in / 16.97 cm of rainfall -- which is MUCH closer to the total shown at NOAA.

The problem with the "general news reports" is that they cover a very wide area of the storm...

This question is specific, however.

@ jenni -- using that source <Brownsville weather.gov: http://www.weather.gov/data/obhistory/KBRO.html >, I show a total of 6.71 inches of rain.

Maybe I missed the 16 inches you saw.

There is a precipitation in last hour, 3 hours and 6 hours listed. I thought that these were different measurements and therefore should all be added together. I see now that I look again that they shouldn't be, and you're right the total should be about 6.5 (settling as 5-10). Thanks for double checking! Guess this is another question where everyone makes h$. (sigh)

Here is another link, which provides weather data from the NWS's Browsville, TX reporting station of KBRO. It is actually for the month of July, on a daily basis. Look at it and come to your own conclusion about the "official" amount of rain Brownsville received.

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/raw/cx/cxus54.kbro.cf6.bro.txt

BTW, I did not make a "wager" on this question.

@ jenniandboys

You stated "This has already settled, so it hardly matters".

I know you have reversed the initial settlement, but I disagree with this statement. It does matter, and especially if incorrectly settled.

Well my tone was mostly because this is argine's first question, he's only 10 and I don't want to scare him away from hubdub with our bickering. He's doing his best and I'm glad he's playing.

Yes, settlement sources are important and if I'd been here at my computer I would have said so long before this question settled. But even with the right settlement source, I still read it wrong, so there's always room for error! Poor Tisha is absolutely swamped covering the three most active categories and its leading to a lot of mistakes. (Sorry Tish, but you know its true). Hopefully when the new cateds come on board things can be a little bit more deliberate.

@anybody who knows..i been noticing tish (my hunny) has been settling alot of questions. for awhile it was ryan (btw he's mean) is this a new work schedule? is ryan still working for HD? i'm guessing if their hiring new admins the site is going to stay up.

@argine..you rule for a 10yr old. glad to see someone so young interested in the news. gives me hope for the future of the country.

@ dieseldog - Ryan is on vacation, and will be back soon.

(btw, I don't know anyone on this board who is "mean" -- just my view.)

@newswrangler..i was just tormenting ryan. he knows i don't think he's mean. thanks for the info. have a nice day.

ohhhhhhhh ... tormenting! ... now that's a pastime many of us can get behind! ;-)

aregine is 10? Wow, that's one smart and capable kid. Awesome.

Congratulations aregine! You've managed to get most of the top Hubdubbers caught up in the storm. For a young person, you are especially literate. Echoing dieseldog's sentiment, I hope that you are an example of what the US can expect from your generation. Bravo on the question, and Bravo on the manner in which you've handled yourself under adult scrutiny. You have done yourself and your Dad very proud.

We've discussed and guessed how many Husband/Wife teams are on Hubdub.
I wonder how many Father/Son teams exist.

AnAverageAmerican/Skipper
ValorNHonor/Aregine
Cognos/Addicus

Any others?

Thanks for the comments about my son, I'm understandably proud of him and his three brothers also. "Aregine" was a finalist in the district wide spelling bee this past year and even had to correct one of the judges when they mispronounced a word! He reads about 100 books a year and can recite dialouge verbatim from movies he sees. Forget about trying to beat him at a game of "memory" (finding matches of cards from amongst a desck all turned over on a table) and it takes legit effort for me to beat him in chess.

wow!! i had no idea aregine is valhonor's son. he must get his question making ability from his mom :O) keep up the good work val and aregine.