question: Is there a maximum limit on how hard it can rain?
comment: You could try and calculate it. The variables would be Size of drop, Number of drops, Frequency of drops (from these three we can calculate total volume) and the speed of drops. & #x200B; There is a maximum limit on how *fast* rain can fall. Terminal velocity is about [10m/sec]( URL_2 ) or 20mph for a large drop. So assuming a set amount and rate the answer is Yes, there is a limit. But if you drop more rain at once, maybe? & #x200B; As to the size number and frequency there is probably some upper limit, but I'm not sure how you would go about figuring that. There is only so much water the atmosphere will hold before it starts to come down. [This]( URL_2 ) might be interesting to you. & #x200B; Another way to look at it might be to look at how we [classify]( URL_1 ) storms. A class five hurricane has greater than 157 MPH winds - I imagine rain in that wind would smart a great deal more than 20 MPH falling form the sky. And since our classification stops at category 5, we could say that is the practical limit, then speculate on a theoretical limit above that. & #x200B; You're not going to get [water to move at the speed of sound]( URL_0 ), so we can assume the worst case scenario would be a large amount of water moving at some speed above cat 5 157 MPH but below speed of sound 770 MPH. & #x200B; So... yes? & #x200B; TLDR, yes, but going to be hard to figure.
passages: BULLET::::- "Rainfall continuity" – the more frequent and extended are the gaps during the event where no rainfall occurs, the higher the likelihood that potential stemflow volume is lost to evapotranspiration; this is also governed by air temperature, relative humidity and most significantly, wind speed
  
  BULLET::::- "Rainfall intensity" – the amount of total stemflow is diminished when the amount of rain in a given period surpasses the capacity of the flow paths
   Section::::United States rules of thumb for forecasting.:Eight inch or 203 mm rule.
  
  Rusty Pfost, now the head of the Miami National Weather Service Forecast Office, did a study in 1999 reviewing rainfall totals from tropical systems affecting Florida between 1960 and 1998. He found that for tropical cyclones moving at greater than 6 knots, the average storm total was normally in the 5–10 inch (127–254 mm) range. Slower moving storms usually forced greater than of rain to fall.
  
  Section::::United States rules of thumb for forecasting.:Sixteen inch or 406 mm rule.
   Section::::Systematic rainfall measurement.
   BULLET::::- A maximum of 3.5GL is set for any one year.
  
  The Base Passing Flow releases typically occur during drier weather.
   Section::::Hydrology.:Low waters.
  
  However, the 3-day low-water volume can drop to a severe 0.044 m³ during a dry five-year period (or 44 L/s).
  
  Section::::Hydrology.:Floods.
  
  Floods can also be important.
  
  The maximal debit recorded was 65.2 m³/s on January 22, 1995, while the maximal daily worth was of 52.6 m³/s on April 10, 1983, which is expected to happen every 10 to 15 years on average. The maximal height was of 1920 mm (or 1.92 m) on January 14, 2004.
  
  Section::::Hydrology.:Water slide and debit.
   Section::::Hazards.
   An example of an event where the hourly PoPs are not independent is a hurricane. In that case, there may be a 1 in 5 chance of the hurricane hitting a given stretch of coast, but if it does arrive there will be rain for several hours.
  
  Section::::Definitions.:Other US forecasters.
   Section::::Cuba.
  
  Hurricane Flora of October 1963 drifted across Cuba for four days, leading to extreme rainfall across the mountainous island country. During the heaviest 24‑hour period of rainfall, of rain fell at Santiago de Cuba. Total amounts of over 4 days and over 5 days produced staggering loss of life in Cuba, where over 2000 perished.
  
  Section::::Dominica.
   Section::::Long-term averages.
   Section::::United States rules of thumb for forecasting.
  
  Section::::United States rules of thumb for forecasting.:Kraft rule.
   The United States Army Corps of Engineers bases their requirements on the Probable Maximum Flood (PMF) and the Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP). The PMP is the largest precipitation thought to be physically possible in the upstream watershed. Dams of lower hazard may be allowed to have an IDF less than the PMF.
  
  Section::::Design considerations.:Energy dissipation.
   BULLET::::- Light rain — when the precipitation rate is  per hour
  
  BULLET::::- Moderate rain — when the precipitation rate is between - or per hour
  
  BULLET::::- Heavy rain — when the precipitation rate is  per hour, or between and per hour
  
  BULLET::::- Violent rain — when the precipitation rate is  per hour
  
  Euphemisms for a heavy or violent rain include gully washer, trash-mover and toad-strangler.
  
  The intensity can also be expressed by rainfall erosivity "R-factor" or in terms of the rainfall time-structure "n-index".
  
  Section::::Measurement.:Return period.
   BULLET::::6. – Claudette 1979 in Alvin, Texas
  
  BULLET::::7. – T.D. # 15 1970 in Jayuya, Puerto Rico
  
  BULLET::::8. – Allison 2001 in northwest Jefferson County, Texas
  
  BULLET::::9. – Paul 2000 at the Kapapala Ranch 36, Hawaii
  
  BULLET::::10. – Georges 1998 in Munson, Florida
  
  Section::::Maximum per state for the contiguous United States.
   Precipitable water values of greater than favor the development of organized thunderstorm complexes. Those with heavy rainfall normally have precipitable water values greater than . normally greater than , Upstream values of CAPE of greater than 800 J/kg are usually required for the development of organized convection.
  
  Section::::Types.
  
  Section::::Types.:Mesoscale Convective Complex.
   This approach is adopted from the NRCS (SCS) curve number method for estimating runoff. It assumes that the total infiltration capacity of a soil can be found from the soil's tabulated curve number. During a rain event this capacity is depleted as a function of cumulative rainfall and remaining capacity. The input parameters for this method are the curve number and the time it takes a fully saturated soil to completely dry (used to compute the recovery of infiltration capacity during dry periods).
   Section::::Governance.:Water level management.
   Section::::Social media and outreach.
   Section::::Cast.
  
  BULLET::::- Gary Oldman as Hiltzer
  
  BULLET::::- Kippei Shiina as John Rain
  
  BULLET::::- Misa Shimizu as Yuko
  
  BULLET::::- Kyōko Hasegawa as Midori
  
  BULLET::::- Takumi Bando as Ken
  
  BULLET::::- Akira Emoto as Tatsu
  
  BULLET::::- Dirk Hunter as Thomas Perryman
  
  BULLET::::- David McFall as CIA man
  
  Section::::Reception.
   Section::::Anticipating a flood event.
   Alberta has a set of Rainwater Harvesting Guidelines for residential use. They are recommended for the safe design, construction and maintenance of residential rainwater harvesting systems. The guidelines provide additional detail than what is present in the current code and supports conformance to "CAN/CSA 128.1 Design and Installation of Non-Potable Water Systems/Maintenance and Field Testing of Non-Potable Water Systems". The Alberta Building Code and the National Plumbing Code requirements have precedence over these guidelines. In addition to the guidelines, a handbook was developed to provide broader understanding of the technical components of the guidelines.
  
  Section::::Property rights.:Provincial property rights.:British Columbia.
   Some of the highest elevations on the planet lie in Nepal. Eight out of fourteen highest peaks in the world lie in the Nepalese Himalaya including the highest peak of the World, Mt. Everest (8848 m). During a tropical depression that affected the Indian Subcontinent in 2004, of rain fell at Kathmandu airport in the 24‑hour period ending at 1200 UTC on October 7.
  
  Section::::Netherlands Antilles.
  
  Section::::Netherlands Antilles.:Saint Martin/Sint Maarten.
  
  This hilly island is partially owned by France and partially claimed by the Netherlands.
  
  Section::::New Zealand.
   BULLET::::- The South African town of Laingsburg was basically destroyed on 25 January 1981, when 104 of its 900 inhabitants died during a flood that swept through the town and left only about 25 houses standing
  
  BULLET::::- In 1982, the river Jucar in Spain breaks the Tous Reservoir, flooding the surrounding land in a deluge of 16,000 m/s of water, and killing 30 people.
   BULLET::::- Factor Z2 (the growth factor) is found from the M5 rainfall depth, and depends on the return period.
  
  BULLET::::- The Areal Reduction Factor (ARF) takes the catchment area into account. For small catchments (below 1 km) the ARF is not required.
  
  To find the depth of a rainfall of duration D and return period T at a given location in the UK, the following should be carried out:
  
  BULLET::::1. Find M5-60 minutes rainfall depth and "r" for the location using FSR maps.
  
  BULLET::::2. Divide this rainfall depth by "r" to get the M5-2 days depth.
   In the United Kingdom an absolute drought is currently defined "as a period of at least 15 consecutive days when there is less than 0.2 mm (0.008 inches) of rainfall", although before the 1990s a drought was defined as "15 consecutive days with less than 0.25 mm (0.01 inches) rain on any one day". This previous definition sometimes led to confusion, as many argued, "if less than 0.25 mm of rain each day fell in 30 days, is that 2 droughts? And if 0.26 mm fell after 25 days, is the drought over?" This led to the new definition, but many believe hindsight is the best way to judge if a drought has occurred.
   When a precipitation measurement is made, various networks exist across the United States and elsewhere where rainfall measurements can be submitted through the Internet, such as CoCoRAHS or GLOBE. If a network is not available in the area where one lives, the nearest local weather or met office will likely be interested in the measurement.
  
  Section::::Measurement.:Remote sensing.
  