Western U.S. Anomaly Page - MTotal Top 20

Top 20 MTotal Events - 1948 through 2006

Rank
Date
MTOTAL
Description
References
1 18 July 1987 4.529 Record rain OR/ID/MT; Yellowstone F4 Tornado Fujita 1989; Evans and Johns 1995
2 10 November 1969 4.288 Cut-off low…1-2" rain in southern CA and AZ  
3 25 September 1986 4.281 Significant flooding in Montana (10" rain in 18 hrs) Lussky 1989; Braun and Monteverdi 1988; Braun 1991
4 10 June 1955 4.235 Cut-off low…2-3" rain in AZ as it moved inland
5 17 April 1983 4.172 Cut-off low…1-2" rain in southern CA and AZ
6 1 May 1951 4.153 Heavy rain and snow event from West Coast into MT
7 16 November 1986 4.113 Cut-off near Baja; 1-2" rain southern CA
8 13 October 1962 4.108 Intense low - Columbus Day windstorm - northern CA to the Pacific NW Lynott and Cramper 1966
9 13 December 1997 4.076 Strong High Pressure Great Basin…Record Lows
10 14 December 1967 4.072 Massive winter storm in AZ…state 24 hour snowfall record
11 23 March 1954 4.071 Heavy rain in southern CA…10-12" in CA mountains…32" snow in 24 hrs in Bright Angel AZ
12 26 June 1996 4.062 Record cold in the West; severe weather outbreak in MT
13 30 March 1978 4.037 Cut-off low; 1-2" in southern CA…locally up to 5"
14 23 December 1955 4.010 Record rain and flooding across northern CA and Oregon; significant Pacific Northwest windstorm Cole and Scanlon 1955
15 26 June 1969 3.970 Heavy rain from the Pacific NW to MT and ND
16 21 May 2006 3.966 Pacific Northwest severe weather event
17 22 April 2005 3.962 West Coast trough
18 2 August 1976 3.956 West Coast trough; Big Thompson Canyon flash flood Maddox et al. 1978; Carcena et al. 1979; Chang and Perkey 1995
19 27 April 1997 3.953 Texas Upper low; record spring snow in Texas
20 24 March 1957 3.940

Hart, R. and R.H. Grumm, 2001: Using normalized climatological anomalies to objectively rank extreme synoptic-scale events. Mon. Wea. Rev., 129, 2426-2442.