Death Valley averages about two inches (50 mm) of rain a year, but it’s been on the dry side there in 2007, making what happened there this week all the more remarkable:

Prior to today the yearly rainfall total in Death Valley was 0.10 of an inch. As of 2 p.m. PT, Death Valley had picked up 0.15 of an inch of rain today.

By the time it was done, according to this week’s drought monitor, the Sept. 22 storm had dropped 0.63 inch (16.5 mm), its biggest rain storm in two years.