Texas reports record flooding amid ongoing drought

Woman killed in Dallas County after car swept away in 'one-in-200-year' meteorological event

A massive rainstorm in North Texas drenched parts of the Dallas-Fort Worth area with more than 30 centimetres of rain, swamping roads and triggering flash flood warnings, in what one expert called a “one-in-200-year event”.

A woman, 60, died after floodwaters fed by torrential rainfall swept away her car, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins reported on Monday.

He declared a state of disaster in the county, following an intense storm that dropped more than 23cm of rain at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

This was the second wettest 24-hour period in the airport’s history, said the National Weather Service.

“It fell too fast, too furious,” said Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist at commercial forecaster Accuweather.

Climate change has fuelled more frequent historic rains and flooding, since a warmer atmosphere tends to support greater moisture, which has led to an acceleration of these kinds of extreme rainfall events, Mr Porter said.

Police in Fort Worth responded to more than 50 water-related emergencies overnight and the city’s fire department asked people to stay at home.

Photos posted online show cars submerged to their windscreens and motorways that looked like rivers.

Parts of Dallas received more than 35cm of rain on Monday, city records showed.

“It’s a one-in-200-year event, at least,” said Ryan Truchelut, chief meteorologist at commercial forecaster WeatherTiger.

“That's not normal, by any means.”

Average annual rainfall in the area is about 89cm, so some neighbourhoods had as much rain as would normally fall in four months, he said.

The period before the downpour was abnormally dry, with less than 2.5cm of rain in July and August up until a few days ago, Mr Truchelut said.

What has been revealed by droughts globally — in pictures

The remains of the submerged Gary Qasruka village abandoned 36 years ago, which have resurfaced after falling water levels at the Dohuk Dam due to drought, in the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq. AFP

The tall bleached 'bathtub ring' is visible on the rocky banks of Lake Powell at Reflection Canyon in Utah, as severe drought grips parts of the western US. Getty Images

The dolmen of Guadalperal, also known as the Spanish Stonehenge, is seen due to the receding water of the Valdecanas reservoir near El Gordo, Spain. Reuters

A shopping cart rusts on a sandbank in the Rhine, exposed by the low tide in Bonn, Germany. Reuters

A formerly sunken boat sits upright along the shoreline at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Boulder City, Nevada. EPA

The Kloental lake's low water level in Glarus, Switzerland. EPA

Houses of the former village of Aceredo, in Galicia, Spain. The village was buried under water due to the construction of a reservoir in 1992, yet in 2021 the village resurfaced due to a drought. EPA

The wreck of a ship that sank during the Second World War is revealed by the unusually low water level of the River Danube near Vamosszabadi, in north-western Hungary. EPA

A view of the Roman camp Aquis Querquennis, located on the banks of the Limia river in the As Conchas reservoir, in Ourense, Spain. The camp is usually underwater but can now be seen due to the low level of the reservoir. EPA

Visitors on the salt flats watching the sunset over the Great Salt Lake, Utah. The lake has lost 50 per cent of its volume since the arrival of Mormon pioneers in 1847. EPA

A buoy sits high and dry on cracked earth previously under the waters of Lake Mead at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area near Boulder City, Nevada. AP Photo

Robert Smithson's earthwork 'Spiral Jetty' on the shore of Great Salt Lake, Utah. Constructed in 1970, the work remained submerged until 2002, when a mega-drought began to afflict the region. EPA

A tire sits on dried land that was once under water at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Boulder City, Nevada. EPA

The Virgen de los Dolores (Our lady of Sorrows) Temple in Guanajuato state, Mexico. The temple, built in 1898, was flooded 40 years ago to build a dam. Heavy drought in the region has exposed its structure again. EPA

Bloomberg contributed to this report