The amount of rain Hurricane Harvey dumped the Gulf Coast, particularly Texas, quickly becomes tough to comprehend.

But it’s important to understand what happened in Texas because Rowan County will not be totally immune to the effects of the storm, even if it’s only increased gas prices.

One of the most populated cities in America — Houston — became submerged under a sea of water. Floods also inundated nearby cities with smaller populations.

A gauge east of Houston measured 51.88 inches of rain from when the storm arrived to Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service

It’s mind-numbing to try to imagine 51.88 inches of rain. What does that look like?

The Washington Post attempted to show the scale of Harvey’s rain by organizing all precipitation during the storm it into a large block of water. It calculated that the amount of water that fell along the Gulf of Mexico could be compacted into a cube of water measuring 2.8 miles on each side.

That still might be hard to imagine. So, I decided to measure the last few months of local rain to provide some sort of context about the truly massive scale of the storm.

At the time I’m writing this column — Thursday afternoon — the previous 13 months of rain at the Piedmont Research Station are nearly equal to the 51.88-inch amount measured in Texas. It’s raining now. Perhaps by the time you’re reading this column, the rain total will be equal.

Anyway, the total amount of rain at the Piedmont Research Station, near West Rowan High School, over the previous 13 months measures 50.82 inches. I accessed the data through the N.C. State Climate Office website.

The North Carolina Drought Monitor shows parts of Rowan County are abnormally dry. As a result, the number of months may be slightly lower than 13 during a month with average rainfall. Still, it would take many months of rainfall occurring in a week or less for Rowan County to experience something similar to Harvey.

It’s not hyperbole to say Hurricane Harvey dropped catastrophic levels of rain on one of America’s major cities. North Carolina will see some economic effects of the storm locally. Gasoline prices are the most probable example.

With an estimated population of 2.3 million in the city and millions more in the metropolitan area, Houston is the most populous city in Texas and the fourth-most populous city in the U.S. Many of the city’s largest companies are in the energy and oil sector. At least three oil companies are among the city’s top 10 employers, according to a Houston Chronicle Survey.

Data compiled by GasBuddy.com — an app that crowdsources its information — found that average gas prices in the Charlotte region jumped from about $2.20 per gallon on Aug. 27 to $2.54 on Thursday. In the Greensboro and Winston-Salem areas, average gas prices rose from about $2.20 on Aug. 27 to about $2.40 on Thursday.

With those kinds of increases, 15 gallons of gas would have risen from an average of $33 on Aug. 27 to $38.1 on Thursday in the Charlotte area. In Greensboro and Winston-Salem, 15 gallons of gas rose from an average of $33 to $36.

It’s possible that prices will rise further.

When storms ravage far-away cities, it can be difficult to imagine what those affected are going through. Visualizing the scale of a such a storm isn’t easy either.

But it’s critical that we understand the scope and scale of Harvey because Rowan County will not be immune from effects of the storm.

Josh Bergeron is the associate editor of the Salisbury Post.