Updated Sunday, May 24, 2014, 6:54 p.m. E.S.T.
Unprecedented rainfall has led to deadly flooding in Texas and Oklahoma over the weekend, prompting numerous evacuations and rescues, and killing two people.
Heavy rains hit eastern Texas and eastern Oklahoma on Sunday morning, after dumping between five and 10 inches across parts of central Texas and Oklahoma on Saturday night into Sunday. The latest downpours pushed Oklahoma City into record territory, with 18.19 inches of rain so far in the month of May.
Not only does this make May 2015 the wettest May on record, but it also vaults the month to the top of the list of all-time wettest months. This May handily beat the previous record-holder, which was June 1989, when 14.66 inches fell -- and the month is not over yet.
The rainfall totals have come as an abrupt reversal of fortune from drought conditions that still gripped the southern Plains just three weeks ago.
According to the National Weather Service forecast office in the Oklahoma City area, that one location of the weather agency has issued 70 flash flood warnings already this year, which is more than it issued during the past four years combined.
Purcell looking a little wet. (shot with drone via @enablerobotics) pic.twitter.com/Km9HkwhFBs— Nick Brown (@NickBrownOKC) May 24, 2015
Sapulpa neighborhood flooding. pic.twitter.com/zsNvQNA2hM— Allison Harris (@allisonlharris) May 24, 2015
The 17.61 for May (as of 854 PM) means 20.46 for 14 April-23 May, the rainiest 40 days and 40 nights in OKC history. #okwx @NWSNorman— Harold Brooks (@hebrooks87) May 24, 2015
Rogers County Emergency Management spokesman Thomas Hudson said a firefighter in the northeast Oklahoma town of Claremore died early Sunday after being swept away by floodwaters during a rescue. Officials said early Sunday that they are working to recover the body. Meanwhile, residents in Cleveland and Comanche counties in Oklahoma had to be rescued from attics and roofs.
Wichita Falls, Texas, which was particularly hard-hit by the drought, also had its wettest month of any calendar month dating back to 1897, according to the National Weather Service.
An example of why it's a bad idea to drive where you can't see the road under the water - the road may not be there! https://t.co/C0AyMzWE7P— NWS Norman (@NWSNorman) May 24, 2015
In central Texas, rain caused the Blanco River in Hays County to rise to a record level Saturday, forcing authorities to evacuate residents. The river rose more than 33 feet in just 3 hours in Wimberley, Texas, cresting at about 27 feet above flood stage and beating the all-time record crest from 1929 by about 7 feet, before the gauge stopped reporting data. Wimberley is a town about 40 miles southwest of Austin.
Blanco river earlier today. ...@AlbertR_KVUE pic.twitter.com/zEOzZ7SWRS— Armando Cardona (@BlancoMando) May 24, 2015
People in their cars trying to head home stuck in traffic on I-35 because of water from the Blanco River on the Hwy pic.twitter.com/Ou60HbM4yA— Candice (@KXAN_Candice) May 24, 2015
Hays County officials said in a press conference Sunday that one man was killed in the floods and three people remain missing. The man's identity has not yet been released.
At least 1,000 people remain in the county's emergency shelters, and at least 400 homes were destroyed, officials said. Authorities have declared a state of emergency in the county.
It's with heavy hearts that the City reports the first fatality of this flood event. No word on the man’s identity at this time #SMTXflood— San Marcos (@CityofSanMarcos) May 24, 2015
A state of emergency has been declared in Hays County— SRECSD21 (@SRECSD21) May 24, 2015
Hays County Sheriff's Lt. Jeri Skrocki said numerous rescues were conducted in Wimberley. The town's fire department confirmed via Twitter on Sunday that the Fischer Store Road bridge over the Blanco River was destroyed.
It has been confirmed that the Fischer Store bridge is gone— Wimberley Fire Dept (@WimberleyFD) May 24, 2015
Early Sunday, the government of Kyle, Texas, a city near the Blanco River, urged people living along the river to "seek higher ground immediately." Several other rivers, including the Wichita River, are expected to swell past record levels due to a month of unrelenting downpours.
Anyone living along the Blanco River should seek higher ground immediately. The river is rising to record levels and more rain is on the way— City of Kyle (@KyleGovernment) May 24, 2015
San Marcos, Texas, also suffered severe flooding, and the municipal government urged affected residents to evacuate early Sunday. The city also said it converted the San Marcos Activity Center and Hernandez Elementary School into temporary shelters, and was using school buses to transport stranded residents.
@weatherchannel @KXAN_News this is at the Grove Apts. this morning in San Marcos. Off River Ridge Pkwy. pic.twitter.com/9BlBh1cert— Efren Chavez Jr. (@echz08) May 24, 2015
@KVUE the aspen Apartments in San Marcos pic.twitter.com/FwWaffmQqU— Michael Stephens (@impickinuoff) May 24, 2015
Aquarena springs San Marcos TX #txst pic.twitter.com/OweP51yJ9g— Henry (@Sejasgrandes) May 24, 2015
National Guard responding to help in San Marcos pic.twitter.com/hZfhuZG35x— Paul Shelton (@PhotogPaul) May 24, 2015
We are now at the San Marcos Activity Center. It's a temp shelter as ppl evacuate their homes. Abt 80 ppl here. pic.twitter.com/9D2onKhP9E— Sophia Beausoleil (@Sophia_beau) May 24, 2015
Nearly 30,000 people in the greater Austin area were out of power, according to Austin Energy. The electric utility's most recent update said it resolved "75% of the original outages," but that 7,000 customers still have no service.
More rainfall is possible across parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and other hard-hit states through the early part of this week.
The deluges that have descended on the Plains in recent weeks -- some also unleashing baseball-sized hail and tornadoes -- have formed within a stuck weather regime that has caused moisture from the Gulf of Mexico to stream northward from southeast Texas into the Plains states; here, the moisture has encountered a steady parade of upper-level, low-pressure areas and frontal systems moving out of the Southwest and Rockies. These weather systems have provided ample lift to force the warm, moist air to rise, cool and condense, thereby forming clouds and precipitation.
The recent weather pattern has some links to thunderstorm activity and winds in the equatorial tropical Pacific, where an El Niño event is gathering strength. Such events tend to bring wetter-than-average conditions to the southern tier of the U.S.
In addition, many climate studies have found that as the world warms in response to rising levels of manmade greenhouse gases, heavy precipitation events are becoming more frequent and intense. This is true in the South Central states, but it's most pronounced in the Northeast and Midwest.
Additional reporting by Patrick Kulp and The Associated Press