Life-threatening Oklahoma Floods: Live Tracker Maps
6 hours ago
3,956
Thunderstorms drenched parts of central and southern Oklahoma on Wednesday, bringing life-threatening flash floods to more than a dozen counties and threatening communities with inundated roads, submerged vehicles and dangerous travel conditions.
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued multiple flash flood warnings across the region, including for Cleveland, Pottawatomie, Garvin, and McClain counties, with rainfall totals reaching up to three inches in some locations and more expected throughout the morning.
Why It Matters
The NWS characterized the flooding risk as “life threatening,” with flash floods impacting urban streets, highways, low-lying areas, and small streams. The situation prompted emergency alerts across a wide swath of Oklahoma, including portions of Norman, Shawnee, Ada, and Purcell.
In a bulletin issued at 9:18 a.m. CDT, meteorologists warned that “flash flooding of small creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses as well as other poor drainage and low-lying areas” was ongoing.
What to Know
Compounding the risk is the potential for more storms throughout the day. According to the NWS Weather Prediction Center, the central and southern Plains, including Oklahoma and northern Texas, are experiencing a multi-day severe weather event that includes a high threat of flash flooding and the possibility of tornadoes.
A stock image shows floods in Texas. A stock image shows floods in Texas. ruthannburke/Getty
The NWS is urging residents to avoid flooded roads and stay alert for rapidly changing weather. At least three flash flood warnings in effect Wednesday morning noted that additional rainfall of up to one inch was expected, exacerbating already saturated ground conditions.
Radar estimates from the Weather Prediction Center suggested up to 3 inches of rain had already fallen in parts of central Oklahoma, and forecasters said the potential remained for up to an inch more in many of the warned areas.
Weather Radar
Animated weather footage from windy.com shows that storms are ongoing across much of Oklahoma. The storms stretch as far south as Central Texas and also are impacting southeastern Kansas.
Rain accumulation
Several inches of rain have already fallen, and even more is expected to fall. Meteorologists in Oklahoma and Texas have warned that another 2 inches of rain is possible before the storms leave the region, with some areas seeing higher amounts.
The heaviest rainfall will occur in central and northeastern Oklahoma.
Thunderstorms
In addition to heavy rain, animated weather footage from windy.com shows severe thunderstorms concentrated in Southern and Central Oklahoma, as well as parts of Central Texas.
Weather warnings
Forecasts anticipate severe weather will continue in Oklahoma, Texas and western Arkansas on Wednesday. NWS offices in those regions have issued severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado watches.
Flood forecast
NWS meteorologist in charge Mark Fox, who works at the Norman, Oklahoma, office, told Newsweek that rivers might remain flooded through early July.
“The rivers are going to take a couple of weeks before things go down,” he said. “High water is out there all across the southwest part of the state and the central part of the state. May is actually our rainiest month, so it may be June, early July before things truly get back to normal.”
What People Are Saying
NWS meteorologist in charge Mark Fox , who works at the Norman, Oklahoma, office, told Newsweek: “This wave of heavy rain will end in the next couple of hours. By this afternoon, we will be starting the drying out process. There’s a couple more waves late tonight and again late Friday night. This is definitely rainy season in Oklahoma.”
NWS Norman in a flash flood warning: “Turn around, don’t drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles.”
What Happens Next
The flooding threat is expected to continue through the day as additional thunderstorms move across the region. The Weather Prediction Center has maintained a slight risk for excessive rainfall in parts of Oklahoma, with the potential for rainfall totals exceeding five inches in isolated locations.
A legjobb élmény biztosítása érdekében olyan technológiákat használunk, mint a cookie-k az eszközadatok tárolására és/vagy eléréséhez. Ha beleegyezik ezekbe a technológiákba, akkor olyan adatokat dolgozhatunk fel ezen az oldalon, mint a böngészési viselkedés vagy az egyedi azonosítók. A hozzájárulás elmulasztása vagy visszavonása bizonyos funkciókat és funkciókat hátrányosan érinthet.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
