Heavy rainfall events have dominated our recent weather pattern as slow moving storms fester and feast on abundant water vapor available within the atmosphere. The featured chart presents IEM computed precipitable water for the evening sounding taken by the NWS in Davenport. This variable summarizes the amount of water within the atmosphere if it were all converted into a liquid depth. The amount of water vapor that air can hold increases with temperature, so it makes sense to see the highest precipitable water values when the atmosphere is the warmest. The chart presents some monthly max and min stats along with the climatological range and 2025 observations. Recent values have approached two inches, which is on the high end of the observed record. As a first approximation, this value correlates well with precipitation rates observed within convective thunderstorms. Often, these rates are materialized over a duration of less than an hour. So a two inch value can support hourly precipitation rates from two to perhaps as much as four inches per hour.

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