TULSA, Okla. — Northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas received 10 to 20 inches of rain in May 2019 creating major flooding for many rivers including the Arkansas.
2 News Oklahoma wanted to know what it takes for the Arkansas river to flood.
Multiple rounds of rain fell on portions of Oklahoma and Kansas between April 29th and May 30th 2019.
The heavy rain started in Kansas. The heaviest amounts fell over the Arkansas River. All of that water eventually flowed down into eastern Oklahoma. So, while some wondered if the snow pack in the Colorado Rockies contributed to the flooding, we learned it was really just about multiple rounds of moderate to heavy rain.
“Even though the Arkansas River goes up to Colorado the Arkansas hasn’t flowed all the way from Colorado down into Tulsa since 1999,” said Eric Jones. Jones is a Hydrologist at the National Weather Service in Tulsa. He said after looking at the Spring forecast, he is not too concerned history will repeat itself this year.
“The only way we would get decent flooding on the Arkansas would be storm after storm to occur and right now we aren’t in that type of weather pattern,” he said.
The greatest opportunity for flooding in our area on the Arkansas is usually April through June, unless we get the remnants of a tropical system later in the year.
“The potential for flooding in the Arkansas is very low... it’s probably about a little lower than normal but we don’t see anything such as 2019 occurring,” he said.
May 2019 was a rare rainfall event. In fact, the last time Oklahoma saw major flooding was back in 1986 thanks in large part to Hurricane Paine.
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