Rivers in Texas and Oklahoma are finally beginning to recede as the wettest May on record for the two states has come to an end. The National Weather Service (NWS) offices across Texas and Oklahoma ended up issuing a combined total of 594 flash flood warnings last month. Houston received 14.17” of rain for the month, ranking it the 5th wettest May on record for the city. The more astounding stat for Houston is that 11” of those 14.17” fell in less than 12 hours, on the night of May 25th into the early morning of the 26th. This caused substantial flooding, stranding cars on several highways (as seen above and below from Twitter user @_brriiaaa). Statewide, May 2015 was the wettest month on record for Texas with an average of 8.81” of rainfall, which blew away the previous record by over two inches (6.66” average in June 2004).
Stranded cars in Houston from Twitter user @_brriiaaa.
May 2015 was also the wettest month on record for Oklahoma with a statewide average of 14.40” of rain. This number broke the old record by over 3.50”; the previous record was 10.75” statewide in October 1941. Breaking a record by that large of a margin is almost unheard of because most records are usually broken by less than an inch.
The good news about all of this rainfall is that it ended the severe drought that was occurring in Texas and Oklahoma. Just about two weeks ago, the majority of those two states were under drought conditions, a drought that had basically been in existence since 2011. Now, some of the central portions of Texas and northern portions of Oklahoma are still being classified as abnormally dry, but the severe and long duration drought is largely over. Luckily for the Southern states, the pattern has now turned drier for at least the next week or so.
