Flash floods hit the Dallas-Fort Worth region in the state of Texas over the course of the night and into Monday, necessitating rescue operations and prompting some locals to abandon their automobiles on flooded streets, the Washington Post reported.
The overall amount of precipitation has been deemed a so-called 1-in-1,000-year deluge (which means that such heavy rainfall has a negligible chance of occurring in any given year) in certain remote regions.
Dallas and the surrounding area continued to experience rain, with some local rain gauges recording more than 10 inches (25.4 cm) of precipitation so far. At Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, a record 3.01 inches (7.6 cm) of rain fell in one hour.
The flash flood warning in and around Dallas County was extended until 1 pm Central Time (6 pm GMT) as a result of the National Weather Service (NWS) in Fort Worth's warning of a continuing risk for "life-threatening flash flooding."
At least 10 inches (25.4 cm) of rain have already fallen, and another 2 to 4 (5-10 cm) inches are on the way, according to the alert.
The NWS advisory urged locals to leave promptly for higher ground and advised them not to travel on flooded roadways due to the "considerable risk" of harm from the floods. Fort Worth and Canton, Texas, have also received flash flood warnings.
More to the downpour incidents, Robert Ray, a Fox Weather reporter covering the floods in Dallas, saved a woman by pulling her out of her submerged car after she unintentionally drove into a flooded intersection.
On Monday, there were numerous water rescues occurring all around the Dallas-Fort Worth region. Dallas Fire & Rescue had been to 141 water-related situations as of 8 a.m. local time, Jennifer J. Moreno, a representative with the city's emergency management office told the Post.
By 10 a.m., Dallas police were responding to an additional 43 "high water calls," while the Fort Worth Fire Department was responding to 25 requests for high water rescue.
Such precipitation rates are hard for soils to absorb without runoff that could result in flash floods, let alone impervious concrete surfaces.
Tuesday is forecast to bring additional heavy rain, with a slight chance of it moving across areas of Alabama and northern Louisiana.
Heavy precipitation events have been observed to occur more frequently as a result of human-caused climate change; heavier rain can be produced by a warmer atmosphere that can contain more moisture. The frequency of extreme precipitation events that result in significant flooding is predicted to rise in the future, according to the 2022 assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Dallas once had dozens of days with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit (over 37 degrees Celsius) and a dry spell of 67 days until it was eventually ended on August 9. Now, in a startling reversal, Jim Cantore of the Weather Channel remarked on Twitter that it is possible that this August will be the wettest in Dallas since 1899.