El Niño Ready • Rain Math
Rain adds up faster than it looks.
A small depth of rain spread across a large paved area becomes a large volume of water. That is why basic housekeeping around outdoor waste areas matters before a storm.
One inch over 1,000 square feet is about 623 gallons.
Rain depth sounds small because we usually talk about it in inches. But depth multiplied by area becomes volume. One inch of rainfall on 1,000 square feet is roughly 623 gallons before accounting for losses, infiltration, storage, or runoff behavior.
Those examples do not mean all of that water becomes polluted runoff. They simply show why exposed material, leaking containers, loose trash, residue, or wet cardboard can matter across a paved site.
Seasonal outlooks are not site-specific rainfall forecasts.
NOAA can tell us how seasonal odds are shifting. It cannot tell us today how many inches your exact site will receive during the whole winter. For operational planning, use official short-range forecasts as storms approach and treat the seasonal outlook as a prompt to get ready early.