The enormous rainfall from Tropical Storm Harvey is already breaking records. As of Tuesday afternoon, the storm had dumped more than 51 inches, the greatest amount of rain ever recorded in the continental United States.

The National Weather Service (NWS) announced that a gauge in Cedar Bayou, near Mont Belvieu, Texas, recorded a preliminary rainfall of 51.88 inches. Earlier in the day, NWS issued a new preliminary rainfall record southeast of Houston at Marys Creek at Winding Road measuring 49.32 inches. Around the same time at a different location near Houston Clear Creek at Interstate 45 NWS measured 48.64 inches of rain. Both of these records are higher than the previous record of 48 inches set in 1978 during tropical cyclone Amelia which hit Medina, Texas.

John Nielsen-Gammon, a professor at Texas A&M University and the current Texas state climatologist, later confirmed the record 51.88 inches number.

The gauge is believed to be producing good data, Nielsen-Gammon said. It is maintained by Jeffrey Lindner, the director of the Hydrologic Operations Division of Harris County Flood Control District.

The rain is still falling so those gauges have continued to move, said Maureen OLeary, spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees NWS.