Tropical cyclones have brought state’s heaviest rains

Most of Baltimore’s wettest months on record are linked to tropical cyclones.

More than 18 inches fell in August 1955, the month hurricanes Connie and Diane hit back-to-back.

Baltimore got nearly 14 inches of rain in August 1933, the month of the Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane, which cut the inlet that divides Ocean City from Assateague Island. And two feet of rain fell across August and September 2011, a period that included Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee.

While National Weather Service forecasters said Wednesday that Hurricane Irma has the potential to dump “prodigious” amounts of rain on the region, its track now appears to be taking the storm and its rain farther west.

The latest forecasts show the storm going straight up the Florida peninsula into Georgia and turning northwest into Tennessee and Kentucky.

While meteorologists aren’t predicting a deluge on par with Hurricane Harvey, which last month spread at least 30 inches of rainfall across an area of Texas the size of Maryland, Irma could pack enough tropical moisture to cause flooding here, forecasters warned.

Here are the dozen months on record with at least 10 inches of rainfall in Baltimore — most of them linked to a tropical system:

18.35 inches, Aug. 1955 — Hurricanes Connie and Diane

13.83 inches, Aug. 1933 — ChesapeakePotomac Hurricane

13.32 inches, Sept. 2011 — Tropical Storm Lee

13.09 inches, June 2015 — Tropical Storm Bill 12.41 inches, Sept. 1934 12.28 inches, Aug. 1911 11.5 inches, Sept. 1999 — Hurricanes Dennis and Floyd 11.03 inches, July 1889 10.91 inches, Aug. 1971 — Tropical Storm Doria 10.65 inches, July 1905 10.52 inches, Sept. 1876 — “Centennial Storm”

10.38 inches, Aug. 2011 — Hurricane Irene