Thunderstorms hit the Dallas-Fort Worth area Sunday night into Monday and dumped massive amounts of rain over an 18-hour period, flooding roads, inundating homes and forcing some drivers to abandon their vehicles in the heat. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins declared a state of disaster in the area based on preliminary damage assessments, allowing the area to use available state resources to respond. Jenkins also requested federal assistance. Governor Greg Abbott also asked the Texas Department of Emergency Management to increase the readiness level of the state’s emergency operations center to support flood-affected communities. Rainfall in some areas is rated as a 1 in 1,000 year flood, meaning that in any given year it has a 0.1% chance of occurring. Such events could become more frequent in the coming decades as the effects of climate change worsen. Climate scientists have found that rising temperatures are increasing the frequency of extreme rainfall events. Dallas’ east side received 13 to 15 inches of rain in the past 24 hours, according to a Dallas Water Utilities reading. Most of the Dallas-Fort Worth area recorded 6 to 10 inches of rain. The flash floods, in some cases considered life-threatening, have prompted rescue efforts. The Dallas Fire Department alone has responded to hundreds of traffic accidents and other water-related emergencies since 6 p.m. Sunday. Dallas emergency management officials are reporting high water levels on many roads and are advising area residents not to travel. The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch for North Texas until 8 p.m. on Monday and for Central Texas until 7 p.m. Flooding begins to recede in North Texas and the heaviest rainfall shifts to Central Texas. Forecasters are predicting additional rainfall of nearly 2 to 5 inches as the storm system moves through. The storms are expected to continue into the week. It’s a stark contrast from just a few days ago, when much of the state had gone weeks without rain. Much of the state has been in extreme drought for months. WFAA reported that homes are taking on water in Balch Springs, a suburban town in the Dallas area where a grass fire destroyed nine homes just last month. A rise in average temperatures caused by climate change can strongly affect extreme rainfall events by increasing the intensity of rainfall during storms, climate scientists have found. In Texas, precipitation intensity has increased by about 7% since 1960. And the risk of extreme precipitation across the state is increasing even as the western half of the state has generally had a flat or declining trend in precipitation totals over the past century. according to a 2021 report by the state climatologist. Texas could experience 30% to 50% more extreme rain events by 2036 compared to 1950-1999, according to the report. Scientists also found that major floods and extreme rainfall events occur more often after droughts than in the past, according to the Fourth National Climate Assessment. Both the frequency and intensity of heavy rainfall are expected to continue to increase across the southern Great Plains, which includes Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. The full schedule is now LIVE for the 2022 The Texas Tribune Festival, September 22-24 in Austin. Explore the schedule of 100+ mind-expanding conversations coming to TribFest, including the inside track on the 2022 election and 2023 legislative session, the state of the public and higher ed during this pandemic, why the suburbs of Texas are thriving, why broadband access matters, the legacy of slavery, what really happened in Uvalde, and more. See the program.
