15 trillion gallons: putting the rainfall total from Hurricane Harvey in perspective

According to many estimates, 15 trillion gallons, or about 57 trillion liters of rain have fallen, as a result of Hurricane Harvey, with an additional five to six trillion gallons (19-23 trillion liters) of rain forecast by the end of Wednesday.

The question is, just how much is 15 trillion gallons? We crunched some numbers.


Olympic-sized swimming pools

According to FINA, an Olympic-sized swimming pool should hold 2,500 cubic meters of water, or about 660,430 gallons of water. That means enough rain has fallen to fill about 27 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Tempe Town Lake

According to the City of Tempe, Tempe Town Lake, which sits on a section of the Salt River, has a capacity of 977 million gallon. That means the amount of rain that has fallen as a result of Harvey can fill about 15,353 Tempe Town Lakes.

Lake Roosevelt

According to SRP, Lake Roosevelt has a capacity of 1,653,043 acre-feet of water, which translates to approximately 538,646,423,040 (538.646 billion) gallons of water.

15 trillion gallons of water is almost the capacity of 28 Lake Roosevelts.

Lake Mead

According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Lake Mead can hold 35 cubic kilometers, or 9,246,000,000,000 (9.246 trillion) gallons of water. That means the amount of rain that has fallen as a result of Hurricane Harvey can fill Lake Mead once, with some water left over.

Beer

According to the Guinness World Records, Angus Wood and Ed Dupuy of Stod Fold Brewing Company served up a 550 gallon glass of ale in 2014, in the United Kingdom, and that is considered to be the world's largest glass of beer.

15 trillion gallons of water can fill the world's largest glass for beer, about 27 billion times.


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