The drought in Houston (and Texas) in 2011 came up in conversation with a co-worker today, which set me wondering what the hard numbers were.

First, let’s figure out what “normal” rainfall looks like. Wikipedia says we usually get something like 54 inches of rain a year; NOAA says it’s more like 49.77″.

NOAA also has per-year values. We got less than 25 inches of rain in 2011. That’s less than half normal, which is a lot for a place that typically gets more than four feet a rain a year.

NOAA’s figures since 2000 are below; note that no other year in the list is even close to 2011.

• 2011: 24.57″
• 2010: 42.72″
• 2009: 47.01″
• 2008: 53.00″
• 2007: 65.52″
• 2006: 57.86″
• 2005: 41.21″
• 2004: 65.06″
• 2003: 45.76″
• 2002: 59.68″
• 2001: 71.18″ (19″ in June alone thanks to Allison)
• 2000: 47.61″

So, yeah. Pretty dry.