Doyle Rice, USA TODAY
The unrelenting heavy rainfall that soaked the Carolinas in the past week amounted to roughly 11 trillion gallons — enough to end the drought in California.
The rain caused catastrophic flooding in North Carolina and South Carolina, which received 5.2 trillion gallons and 5.8 trillion gallons, respectively, according to data gathered by WeatherBell meteorologist Ryan Maue.
He says 11 trillion gallons would be enough to fill:
- 636 million swimming pools (16 x 32 feet each)
- 130,370 Rose Bowls (filled to the top)
It’s also about one-third the volume of Lake Tahoe.
And, amazingly, it’s the exact amount needed to end the drought in California, according to NASA calculations in December. However, getting all 11 trillion gallons in a few days wouldn’t be the way to get it.
“It takes years to get into a drought of this severity, and it will likely take many more big storms, and years, to crawl out of it,” Jay Famiglietti, a scientist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in December.
So far, the flooding in the Carolinas has killed more than a dozen people and caused over $1 billion in damages.
