Texas Almanac, 1939-1940 Page: 119

                                
WEATHER-METEOROLOGICAL DATA.             119

the cities of the coast, and in most in-
stances this has been remedied by the
erection of seawalls and breakwaters.
Most of Texas also lies within the tor-
nado belt of the Mississippi and Gulf re-
gion. Storms strike with great intensity
in limited areas causing annual loss of
life and property.   The northers for
which Texas has become famous, some-
times called "blue northers," are sel-
dom of sufficient intensity to do property
damage, although in times past they
sometimes caused considerable damage
by bringing unexpected frost and freez-
ing weather. Weather Bureau warnings
have done much to lessen this type of
loss. The northers are anticyclonic gales

which come down with areas of high at-
mospheric pressure out of Rocky Moun-
tain regions and spread over the Texas
plains, sometimes reaching as far south
as the Gulf Coast. Texas also has quite
a reputation for its sandstorms in the
literature of the nation. These westerly
and southwesterly winds which were fa-
miliar to the early settlers have taken
on a more serious aspect in recent years
because of overstocking of the ranges and
increase in cultivated land. However.
new methods of cultivating the soil are
expected to prevent recurrence of the
dust storms that became prevalent in the
Panhandle during the great drouth of
1934.

Texas Rainfall Variation; List of Great Rainstorms.

The variation of rainfall in Texas--due
to its peculiar geographic position with
respect to the warm waters of the Gulf
of Mexico, the Central and High Plains
and the Rocky Mountain area-has pre-
sented peculiar problems of water con-
servation and flood prevention. The sub-
ject will be treated more fully in a fol-
lowing chapter. It is sufficient here to
state that during the last forty years, ac-
cording to the state reclamation depart-
ment, damage in Texas due to floods fol-
lowing excessive rains has been more
than $100,000,000 and caused the loss of
1,100 lives. These figures apply to river
basin floods, and do not include losses
from coastal hurricanes, except as they
caused floods in the river channels.
Variation From Mean Rainfall.
The mean rainfall for all reporting
Texas stations from 1891 to the present
has   been   approximately   thirty-one
inches. This means that if Texas were
a basin of uniform depth, and there were
no evaporation or absorption, at the end
of the normal year there would be thir-
ty-one inches of water covering the en-
tire surface of the state. Part of this
water drains off into the sea but most of
it goes into the ground and thence into
plant life, or is taken up by the sun into
the atmosphere. The problem of con-
serving this water in the soil and in res-
ervoirs, and in controlling it as it col-
lects in the stream basins is the subject
taken up in the next chapter of this vol-
ume.
While the Texas rainfall averages ap-
proximately thirty-one inches for the en-
tire state, the fluctuation from year to
year is Preat. Occasionally, as min 1917,
the weather stations of Texas report
not more than sixteen inches of rainfall
in a year, or fifteen inches under normal.
Again, as in 1919, only two years after
the drouth year mentioned, a rainfall of
forty-five inches was recorded, fifteen
inches above normal.
The greatest rainfall ever recorded in a
year at a Texas weather station was at
Clarksville, Red River County, in 1873,

the rainfall for the year being 109.38
inches. The least rainfall recorded in a
year was 1.80 inches at Sierra Blanca,
Hudspeth County, in 1910.
There is also considerable variation as
of month and calendar year, especially
with respect to rainfall. Texas is the
meeting place of the warm, moist winds
of the Gulf and the sharp blasts that
blow out of the north and northwest
which occasionally causes extraordinary
precipitation in a short space of time.
TEXAS' GREATEST RAINSTORMS,
1891-1938.
Thirty-nine great rainstorms have occurred
in Texas since the beginning of the printed
record of climatological data, 1891, accord-
ing to research by the state reclamation de-
partment, Austin. A bulletin issued by this
department, Excessive Rainfall in Texas, pre-
pared by Robert L. Lowry Jr., technical as-
sistant, and subsequent unprinted data fur-
nished by State Reclamation Engineer Ralph
J. McMahon, list the following great rain-
storms:
Dec. 11-15, 1891: Central near Austin where
eight inches of rain fell, but covered wide
area in Central, North  Central and South
Central Texas. Floods, but no report on loss
of life or property.
April 29-30, 1894: In narrow band from vi-
cinity of Bandera, Kendall, Blanco and Travis
Counties to Lamar County. Maximum       of
five to six inches recorded. No record of
particularly destructive floods.
Sept. 25-27, 1896: Central, Southwest and
Eastern Texas. Maximum of nine inches at
Golindo, McLennan County; also eight inches
at Blanco and seven inches at Hearne.
June 27-July 1, 1899: One of the greatest
storms in Texas history, starting on coast and
progressing northerly, largely over Brazos wa-
tershed, causing greatest flood in history of
that river.  Hearne gauge overflowed at
twenty-four inches and estimated rainfall was
thirty inches; at Turnersvllle, Coryell County.
thirty-three inches were recorded in three
days. There was an average of 8.9 inches
over 66,000 square miles, and 17 Inches over
7,000 square miles.   Brazos  River flood
reached all-time high stage. Flood damage
estimated at $9.000,000; loss of life between
thirty and thirty-five.
April 5-8 1900: Storm began in two cen-
ters, over Val Verde and Swisher Counties,
and converged over Travis County on second