Chris Dolce, Nick Wiltgen, Jonathan Erdman
Published: May 30,2015
May 2015 is now the wettest single month on record in Texas and Oklahoma.
State
climatologist Gary McManus from the Oklahoma Climatological Survey
calculated the May rainfall total averaged over all Sooner State
reporting stations through midday May 29 - 14.18 inches - was easily
outpacing the previous record wet month, set in October 1941 (10.75
inches).
Not to be outdone, Texas has picked up a statewide
average of 7.54 inches so far in May, crushing the previous record wet
month of June 2004 during which a statewide average of 6.66 inches of
rain fell, according to the Office of the State Climatologist at Texas
A&M University.
"It has been one continuous storm after
another for the past week to 10 days in several regions of the state,"
said Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon, Texas state climatologist in a press
release Wednesday. "Spring is usually wet, but not this wet."
More
than 100 locations in the central and southern Plains are currently
reporting river flooding, the majority of which are in Texas, Oklahoma,
Louisiana, Arkansas, eastern Kansas and Missouri. Officials in parts of
Texas are warning that river flooding could last for weeks.
Many cities have already clinched a wettest May or month in their weather record including
Dallas-Ft. Worth, Wichita Falls, Oklahoma City and Corpus Christi.
In Pursuit of Rainfall Records
North/Central Texas May Rain Totals and Rankings
Central/South Texas May Rainfall and Rankings
From
Colorado and Nebraska to Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas, several cities
have seen one of their wettest Mays on record. Here's a look at where
things stood Sunday evening, May 31, with just a few hours left in the
month.
Amarillo, Texas – 9.29 inches of rain had fallen, making it the second-wettest May on record. The all-time record is 9.81 inches in May 1951.
Austin (Camp Mabry), Texas – Extremely heavy rainfall on May 25 dumped 5.20 inches of rain at Camp Mabry, lifting
Austin
to its wettest May on record. The rain tally was 17.59 inches of rain
through late May 31, making it by far the wettest May on record, topping
the old record of 14.10 inches in May 1895. It's also the third wettest
month on record. September 1921, with 20.78 inches, leads the pack for
the city's wettest month.
Across town,
Austin
Bergstrom International Airport logged its second-wettest May since
records began in 1943, tallying 13.44 inches, exactly a quarter-inch shy
of the May record set in 1965.
Brownsville, Texas –
While most other areas of Texas finally caught a break, Brownsville saw
torrential downpours totaling 3.50 inches on the final day of May,
sending the southernmost large city in Texas to a new May rainfall
record of 9.72 inches. The previous May record had been 9.12 inches in
1982.
Because of the many hurricanes that have hit the
region over the decades, this month was easily outranked by a slew of
Septembers and Octobers on the year-round list. May 2015 was only the
31st-wettest month overall for Brownsville, counting the entire
calendar.
Childress, Texas – Despite a
population of just 6,000 or so, this northwest Texas town is one of the
National Weather Service's official "first-order" climate and weather
observation sites. And it had never observed weather quite like that of
this May. As of late May 31, the monthly rainfall total stood at 13.21
inches; this will replace June 1941 (12.05 inches) as the city's wettest
month ever recorded.
Corpus Christi, Texas –
Rainfall in May 2015 was 14.32 inches through late May 31, which is well
beyond the previous May record of 10.44 inches that was set in 1941. A
total of 4.56 inches fell on May 21 to clinch the record. Amazingly,
just nine days prior, exactly 4.56 inches of rain also fell in the city.
May 12 and May 21 are now tied as the third-wettest May days in the
city's weather records.
According to weather.com senior
meteorologist Nick Wiltgen, May 2015 now exceeds Corpus Christi's total
rainfall for the entire drought-parched year of 2011, which was only
12.06 inches.
Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas – 16.96 inches of rain had fallen through late May 31 at
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, smashing the old May record of 13.66 inches in 1982.
The
wettest month on record in the Metroplex is 17.64 inches in April 1922.
This is the single wettest month in the Metroplex since April 1942 --
16.97 inches.
It is also the second wettest spring
(March through May) on record with 25.04 inches so far. The current
record is 29.01 inches set in 1957.
For purposes of
recordkeeping, the National Weather Service considers DFW Airport data
since 1974 to be a continuation of rainfall records kept in Fort Worth
from 1898 to 1974.
Dallas, Texas – The official National Weather Service observation site for
Dallas
proper is currently Love Field, where 14.98 inches of rain had fallen
by late May 31. That broke the May record of 13.74 inches set in 1957.
It ranks third among all months, behind October 1981 (16.05 inches) and
April 1966 (15.40 inches).
Del Rio, Texas – This
border city along the Rio Grande west of San Antonio came very close to
a new May rainfall record, logging 10.17 inches through late May 31.
This ranks third among all Mays, just behind 2010 (10.45 inches) and
1957 (10.23 inches).
Houston, Texas – 14.17 inches of rain
had fallen through late May 31 at Bush Intercontinental Airport on the
city's north side, putting it in fifth place among the city's wettest
Mays. The record wet May there is 15.87 inches in 1907.
Lubbock, Texas –
12.12 inches of rain had fallen through May 30, making it Lubbock's
second-wettest May on record. The total will likely fall a bit short of
the 12.69 inches needed to claim the title for the wettest
May. According to the National Weather Service, the last time it rained 8
inches or more in a month in Lubbock was September 2008 with 8.70
inches.
It is also the third-wettest month in the city, behind May
1941 (12.69 inches) and September 1936 (13.93 inches), oddly a Dust
Bowl year.
Wichita Falls, Texas – May 2015 became
the wettest month on record in this northern Texas city early Friday
afternoon, May 22, when the city's month-to-date total reached 13.33
inches as of 1:11 p.m. CDT. That broke the record for May and for any
month on the calendar, both set in May 1982 with 13.22 inches. As of
late May 31, the monthly total was exactly 17.00 inches.
According
to the National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma, May 2015's
rainfall in Wichita Falls exceed that from the previous six Mays
combined - 13.41 inches.
Shaded
areas show estimated rainfall since the start of May 2015. Specific
numbers plotted on the map are actual totals from airport observations
and CoCoRaHS volunteer observers.
Oklahoma City –
Oklahoma's capital reached a month-to-date total of 14.53 inches at
5:56 p.m. CDT on May 23, breaking its all-time May rainfall record of
14.52 inches in 2013. Only 21 minutes later, the city broke its June
1989 record of 14.66 inches to become the wettest month in Oklahoma City
history. An extremely heavy downpour followed with more than 2 inches
of rain.
Oklahoma City's new all-time record monthly rainfall
total cracked the 19-inch mark May 27. The final May total was 19.48
inches as of May 31. This is more than the average precipitation over a
five-month period from March through July (18.68 inches).
Tulsa, Oklahoma – The
city's May total is 14.77 inches through late May 31, making it the
second-wettest May on record. The record of 18.00 inches in May 1943 has
withstood this year's strong challenge.
Fort Smith, Arkansas –
This western Arkansas city has now recorded its wettest month in
history with 19.85 inches of rain through late May 31. This broke the
previous record of 15.02 inches in June 1945.
Wichita, Kansas – The
largest city in Kansas topped the 10-inch mark May 23 thanks to heavy
rainfall. Through May 30, the city's month-to-date total was 11.77
inches, making it the second-wettest May on record. The standing record
for May is 13.14 inches in 2008.
Lincoln, Nebraska –
10.90 inches of rain has fallen through May 30, ranking as the wettest
May in the Nebraska capital, topping the previous wettest May record of
10.72 inches set in 1903.
Valentine, Nebraska –
7.12 inches of rain has fallen through late May 31, ranking as the
third-wettest May. The current record wettest May of 8.96 inches was set
in 1962.
Colorado Springs, Colorado – 8.13
inches of rain at Colorado Springs Municipal Airport through late May 31
ranks as the wettest May on record. The previous wettest May was in
1935 when 8.10 inches was recorded. Interestingly, several co-operative
and volunteer observation sites only a few miles west of the airport
have picked up 10 to 14 inches of rain this month.
Of the first 30
days of May, 23 had measurable precipitation (.01 inch or greater) at
the Colorado Springs airport; that is an all-time record for any month,
crushing the record of 21 days in August 1927. Six other days had a
trace of precipitation. As of 9:30 p.m. local time May 31, another trace
of rain had fallen, though showers moving toward the city could turn
that into a 24th day of measurable precipitation.
Pueblo, Colorado –
A total of 5.55 inches of rain had fallen through May 30, making it the
wettest May on record. The previous record for wettest May was in 1957
when 5.43 inches was measured.
Every day from May 5 through May 30
– that's 26 straight days – brought at least 4 inches of rainfall to at
least one location in the state of Texas, according to CoCoRaHS, the
Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network. At least 100 of the
volunteer network's 1,699 reporting sites in Texas have recorded at
least 10 inches of rain this month. The wettest of all has been
Pottsboro, near Lake Texoma along the Oklahoma-Texas border with a
total of 26.16 inches through May 30.
Oklahoma has also taken a
drenching this month, with month-to-date totals topping 10 inches across
much of the southern half of the state. Lane, Oklahoma has seen 28.17
inches of rain since May 1 according to the Oklahoma Mesonet. A
CoCoRaHS site northeast of Norman has reported 26.57 inches of rain in
May 2015.
Among other states in the May rainy zone, top
month-to-date totals by state include 20.44 inches near Uniontown in
northwest Arkansas; 16.59 inches near Ruston in northern Louisiana;
13.83 inches in the Ivywild neighborhood of Colorado Springs, Colorado;
13.03 inches near Fairbury in southeast Nebraska; 15.33 inches 5.5 miles
southeast of Topkea, Kansas; and 15.07 inches in Shell Knob in
southwestern Missouri.
The 12 National Weather Service offices
located in Texas and Oklahoma had issued a combined 571 flash flood
warnings so far in May through early on May 30. In all of 2014, they
only issued 497 such warnings.
Southern Plains Flooding Recap
A flooded bayou in Houston, Texas on May 26, 2015.
(DoubleHornPhoto.com)
Overnight Thursday into early Friday, more flash flooding pounded the
Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex, stranding cars and flooding apartments.
(
MORE: Dallas-Ft. Worth Flooding May 28-29)
More
than 10 inches of rain fell in parts of Houston last Monday night,
causing widespread flash flooding in the city. A flash flood emergency
was issued by the National Weather Service for much of the night.
Over
the Memorial Day weekend, catastrophic flash flooding overnight
Saturday into early Sunday flooded hundreds of homes in Hays County,
Texas, including areas near Wimberley and San Marcos.
(
RECAP: Catastrophic Flash Flooding Texas, Oklahoma | Jaw-Dropping Houston Flood Images)
The
National Weather Service in Corpus Christi, Texas, says flooding is
likely to continue for weeks along the Nueces River just west of Corpus
Christi. The flooding is affecting a stretch downstream of the Wesley
Seale Dam, which impounds Lake Corpus Christi.
Lake Texoma, a
reservoir impounding the Red River on the Texas-Oklahoma border, was at
its highest level on record as of Sunday morning at 645.65 feet.
Downstream,
the Red River is expected to crest the first week of June at levels
comparable to the May 1990 flood in Shreveport, Louisiana, potentially
flooding some streets in Bossier City and north Shreveport.
According
to the National Weather Service, thanks to the number of full
reservoirs and tributaries upstream, the Red River may remain high
through at least the end of July in the Ark-La-Tex region.
The
rising Wichita River prompted evacuations of parts of the east side of
Wichita Falls, Texas last Wednesday night and Thursday morning. However,
the river crested about 2 feet lower than original forecasts and about 3
feet below the late June 2007 record.
PHOTOS: Southern Plains Flooding, May 2015
