Introduction
In recent months, Southeast Asia — particularly Vietnam — experienced exceptionally heavy rainfall, with some areas receiving more than 1,000 mm in 24 hours and multi-day totals exceeding 1,800 mm. This raised an important question: Are these among the strongest rainfalls ever recorded globally?
Official world records confirmed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) show that even more extreme rainfall events have occurred throughout history. Below is a detailed analysis including historical records, intensity comparisons, and climate trends.
1. World Records for the Most Intense Rainfall Events
Rainfall extremes are typically measured in two ways:
- Total precipitation over a fixed period (e.g., 24 hours).
- Rainfall intensity, measuring how many millimeters fall in short intervals such as 15, 30, or 60 minutes.
1.1. Largest 24-Hour Rainfall Ever Recorded
1,825 mm in 24 hours
Location: Foc-Foc, Réunion Island
Date: 7–8 January 1966
Réunion Island, located in the southwest Indian Ocean, holds nearly all global rainfall records from 12 to 72 hours due to the extreme power of tropical cyclones affecting the region.
1.2. Most Intense Short-Duration Rainfall
• 15-minute rainfall record:
198 mm in 15 minutes
Location: Plumb Point, Jamaica (1916)
• 42-minute rainfall record:
304.8 mm in 42 minutes
Location: Holt, Missouri, USA (1947)
• 1-hour rainfall record:
401 mm in 60 minutes
Location: Shangdi, Inner Mongolia, China (1975)
These values represent some of the highest rainfall intensities ever measured worldwide.
2. Comparative Table of Extreme Rainfall Events
Below is a summary of the key global rainfall records, including Vietnam’s recent rainfall for comparison.
| Type | Site | Date | Amount (mm) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24-hour total | Foc-Foc, Réunion | 7–8 Jan 1966 | 1825 |
| 1-hour intensity | Shangdi, Inner Mongolia, China | 3 Jul 1975 | 401 (60 min) |
| ~42-minute extreme | Holt, Missouri, USA | 22 Jun 1947 | 304.8 (42 min) |
| 15-minute extreme | Plumb Point, Jamaica | 12 May 1916 | 198 (15 min) |
| Recent Vietnam event (24h sample) | Hue, Vietnam (2025) | Nov 2025 | 1085 (24h reported) |
3. Vietnam 2025 Rainfall Compared to Global Extremes
In 2025, central Vietnam — especially Hue — experienced:
- Approximately 1,085 mm in 24 hours
- Local multi-day totals exceeding 1,800 mm
While catastrophic and extremely intense, these values do not approach the historical world records, especially those from Réunion Island, where:
- 24-hour totals reached 1,825 mm
- 4-day totals reached 4,869 mm (1958)
Vietnam’s event is therefore considered extreme but not record-breaking on a global scale.
4. Are Rainfall Extremes Increasing?
Yes — rainfall intensity is increasing, even though absolute world records have not yet been surpassed.
Why rainfall is becoming more intense:
• Warmer atmosphere
For each +1°C of warming, the air can hold about 7% more water vapor, leading to stronger downpours.
• More frequent high-energy storm systems
Regions impacted by typhoons and tropical cyclones (Vietnam, Philippines, Japan, Réunion) show increasing rainfall extremes.
• Better monitoring
Modern weather stations detect events that would have gone unrecorded a century ago.
Important note:
Although rainfall intensity is increasing globally, historic records from the 1940s–1970s remain unmatched due to the extremely rare atmospheric conditions that produced them.
5. Conclusion
- The strongest rainfall events ever recorded are still dominated by historic storms on Réunion Island, along with extreme events in the USA, China, and Jamaica.
- Vietnam’s 2025 rainfall was destructive and exceptional but not close to the global all-time records.
- Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall, although the absolute historical records remain unbeaten.
Extreme rainfall events will continue to impact tropical and subtropical regions as the climate warms, and improved monitoring will likely reveal even more localized extremes in the coming decades.
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