An island in the southern Indian Ocean set several still-standing world rainfall records in the last week of February from two separate storms.
From Feb. 28-29, 1964, 61 years ago this week, Category 1 Cyclone Giselle struck Réunion Island, a French territory about 450 miles east of Madagascar. But it wasn’t really about the winds.
The reporting station at Belouve measured the following phenomenal rainfalls from Giselle, all world records according to weather historian Christopher Burt:
– 30.16 inches in 6 hours
– 42.79 inches in 9 hours
– 52.76 inches in 12 hours
– 66.49 inches in 18.5 hours
That’s almost as much rain as Miami averages over an entire year (67.41 inches) in less than 24 hours.
Also this week 18 years ago, Réunion Island took another record soaking from Feb. 24-27, 2007. The Cratère Commerson station measured 154.72 inches of rain in 72 hours and 194.33 inches in 96 hours, both still official world records for those respective time frames according to the World Meteorological Organization.
Réunion’s prolific rainfall is due to its location in an alley of South Indian Ocean tropical cyclones, amplified by its terrain. It has several volcanic peaks, one of which reaches just over 10,000 feet.
Moist winds from slow-moving storms including tropical cyclones are strongly lifted by Réunion’s sharp terrain, intensifying rainfall rates.
Reunion Island 1964 cyclone OTD
Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.
