Measuring the rainfall that sparked the Texas floods

Deadly floods devastated central Texas over the 4th of July weekend. Daily precipitation data sourced from the Climate Prediction Center illustrates the extreme rainfall that triggered the disaster.

Our charts measure rainfall at Camp Mabry in Austin, the closest meteorological station to the affected areas. On July 5, 76.3 mm of rainfall was registered - the biggest daily total since January 2024.

We can also compare accumulated precipitation over the course of several calendar years - demonstrating how July 5 was a sudden outlier in what had been a normal seasonal pattern for 2025. Accumulated rainfall at Camp Mabry station had actually been below normal until July 3, as the third chart shows. (We define "normal" as the 30-year average from 1991 to 2020.)

Our granular data - which covers more than 1,000 US weather stations - also allowed us to create a rainfall heatmap spanning major Texas cities. The rainiest multi-day episodes this year have taken place in Houston, rather than the Austin area.