North Texas under water: Over 13 inches have fallen, more to come

North Texas is under water as heavy rains affected the Metroplex areas on Sunday and are forecast to continue through the start of the week. The waters quickly flooded roadways leaving several people stranded to be rescued from their vehicles overnight.

As we stated in our forecast, a front moved south across the Northern Plains and arrived in Texas. This combined with a couple of low-pressure systems sneaking in from the west, caused the atmosphere to become unstable. Plus, plenty of moisture coming from the Gulf of Mexico and the remnants of the tropical disturbance got caught up in the flow and sat over northern Texas for a prolonged period on Sunday.

This setup caused the rain to come and to come fast! Some areas across the Metroplex received 9 inches of rain, leaving people stranded on the roads. Several people were rescued from the rising floodwaters as their cars sank on low-laying roads.

As of 7 a.m. Monday the 24-hour rain total at DFW Airport was 7.17 inches and at Lovefield Airport 6.76 inches. Just east of Dallas from 9 p.m. Sunday through 9 a.m. Monday there have been 13.23 inches recorded as the rain continues to fall hard, at a rate of 2 inches per hour.

Several roads are closed, and rivers continue to overflow. But, not only roads have been affected, but many residents across the Metroplex have dealt with floodwaters coming into their homes.

A front will continue to slowly move through north Texas, especially over the I-20 region. Dallas and Tarrant counties are under flash flood warnings until at least 1 p.m., local time today and flood watches will stay in place until 7 p.m. but could be extended. Monday’s rainfall could add between 1 to 3 inches to the already high amounts.

As the heavier rains slowly move east toward Arkansas and northern Louisiana, there will still be some lingering rains across North Texas through Wednesday. With many places that will still be dealing with high flood waters, any more rain could cause flooding.

Please stay off flooded roads. Within the rainbands, there could be some storms embedded. Some of these storms have a history of rotation. Make sure to have at least three ways of receiving weather alerts throughout the day.