ASK THE METEOROLOGIST
How can one inch of rain cause flooding?
Meredith Langley, Medford
The simple answer to this question is just rain falling at a fast rate. Typically, we see this with thunderstorms and saw it locally over this past summer. About 3″-4″ of water had gathered in downtown Central Point at an intersection from a passing storm that dropped about 1″ of rain in just a very short amount of time.
When our gutters & drainage systems cannot keep up with the fast falling rain, the water collects in low lying areas. So not just the amount of rain falling, but the rate at which it is falling, is what brings flash flooding concerns.