A large part of North Texas, including Dallas and much of Collin County, was placed under a flash flood watch on Saturday as thunderstorms swept through, depositing up to 3 inches of rain in places with more expected.
The National Weather Service (NWS) stated that flash flooding was “ongoing or expected to begin shortly,” according to their advisory issued before noon.
The warning was set to remain in effect until 2:45 p.m., as mentioned by the weather service.
Flash flood alerts were announced for Dallas, Collin, and Rockwall counties, extending to southeastern Denton County and northwestern Kaufman County. So far on Saturday, North Texas received between 1 and 3 inches of rain, with totals expected to increase, as reported by the NWS.
Weather authorities cautioned that small creeks and streams might overflow their banks. Urban areas, highways, streets, and underpasses were also at risk, along with low-lying areas.
Cities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area expected to experience some flooding include Dallas, Plano, Garland, Irving, Grand Prairie, Mesquite, McKinney, Carrollton, Frisco, Richardson, Lewisville, Allen, Rowlett, Desoto, Grapevine, Cedar Hill, Wylie, Coppell, Duncanville, and Rockwall, according to the NWS in Fort Worth.
The storms also caused flight delays at DFW International Airport and Dallas Love Field. As of 4 p.m. Saturday, DFW Airport faced departure delays of about an hour and a half and arrival delays of about an hour, according to FlightAware. Departures from Love Field were delayed by up to 30 minutes.
Oncor’s outage map reported more than 260 outages affecting nearly 3,500 customers as of 4 p.m. Thunderstorms began the holiday weekend with intense rainfall in the Dallas-Fort Worth area as North Texas prepared for a wet Labor Day weekend.
There was a 70% chance of rain on Saturday, increasing to 90% on Sunday, with temperatures expected to remain in the 80s throughout the weekend. The likelihood of rain is projected to decrease to 30% by Sunday night and into Monday, with Labor Day forecasted to be partly sunny.
According to federal forecasters, clear and sunny skies are anticipated to prevail throughout the following week.
