Tropical storm Harvey dropped nearly 125 centimetres of rain, a record for a cyclonic storm in the continental U.S., in Pearland, Texas, south-east of Houston, the National Weather Service said on Tuesday.
The U.S. President Donald Trump and his wife Melania landed in Texas to meet representatives of the relief organisations and witness the emergency operations.
The rain fell within a 58-hour period since Friday, the day that Harvey made landfall as a category four hurricane.
It has since gone on to cause massive flooding in Houston and other parts of Texas.
The record measurement was from a rain gauge at a bridge over Mary’s Creek, about two kilometres from Pearland Regional Airport.
The previous record was 122 centimetres from tropical storm Amelia, which made landfall in July 1978 near Texas’ border with Mexico.
Higher rainfall from a tropical storm has been recorded in the U.S. only in the Hawaiian Islands.