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Cable News Network reports
The bottom dropped out over northern Texas and Oklahoma overnight [May 23/24]. Rainfall broke records and river banks, and killed a firefighter early Sunday, as emergency crews scrambled to pull residents from floodwaters.
With more rain falling, the torrents have already pushed Oklahoma City handily past a rain record and rescuers have carried out at least 48 high-water rescues.
By late Saturday, 3.15 inches had drenched the city, bringing the total for the month to 17.61 inches. "It ... shatters the all-time monthly record of 14.66 inches set in June of 1989," said CNN weather producer Sean Morris.
[...] In Wichita Falls, Texas, [...] "Predictions from the National Weather Service indicate that significant flooding along the Wichita River is very likely", the town's emergency management agency said. "The National Weather Service is calling this an 'historic' flood event."
[...] Wichita Falls is having the rainiest May ever recorded there and "could set an all-time record for rainiest month ever recorded there," CNN's Morris said.
[...] In addition to the worst-hit areas, flood watches and warnings reached from the Texas and western Louisiana Gulf coasts up through eastern Kansas and western Missouri.
[...] Despite the heavy rain, western Oklahoma and parts of the Texas Panhandle and central Texas are still facing moderate drought or abnormally dry conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
[Editor's Comment: Original Submission]
(Score: 4, Informative) by captain normal on Wednesday May 27 2015, @03:27AM
Texas is a very big state. the western part of it is indeed part of "Great American Desert". Many of the parts of it that are getting the most rain recently are usually quite lush. The north eastern part of Texas, around the Red River (Where Wichita Falls is) is part of the Mississippi River basin. most of the eastern and south eastern part of the state is part of the Sabine River and Neches River Basins and, near the coast, are swampy. The middle of the state until around the "Hill Country" (West of Austin and San Antonio) drains into the Colorado River. This is all very lush farm land.
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 4, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday May 27 2015, @02:43PM
I35 is a good dividing line. It runs along the eastern edge of the hill country. East of I35 is the coastal plains, much of which is farmland. West of I35 to the panhandle it's hilly, drier weather, and rockier soil, in many places too rocky to farm even where there is enough water. There's still some farming but it's patchy, and most of the land is used for ranching.
Halfway into the panhandle is the Llano Estacado, one of the the largest mesas in the world, and the headwaters (such as they are-- the stream beds are dry most of the time on top) of the Red River. There is much irrigated cotton farming in the eastern parts of the Llano Estacado. Don't know how sustainable that is. The farmers have drawn the aquifers there down a long ways over the years. The Wichita River is a tributary of the Red, starting in the lower lands just east of the Llano Estacado, may drain a tiny bit of its eastern edge. It's semiarid country, ill equipped to handle a lot of rain all at once.