OKLAHOMA CITY — A powerful storm system stretched from Texas to Minnesota on Sunday, bringing heavy rains, flash flooding and the possibility of more severe weather.
Severe storms were expected to develop Sunday afternoon and evening in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, Illinois and Arkansas.
Rain-soaked Texas saw flash flood warnings, high-water rescues and motorists stranded on roads overwhelmed by torrential rains. A river in northwest Oklahoma threatened to top its banks and affected crops, oil wells and rural roads, while 2 to 3 inches of rain fell in three hours in parts of Arkansas.
The storm system is the result of a cold front extending from the north central Plains into the southern Plains that pushed up behind warm, moist air, said Bill Bunting, chief of operations for the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla.
“It’s a very strong upper level disturbance,” Bunting said, noting it stretched at one point nearly to the U.S. border with Mexico. “It’s as extensive an area as we’ve seen this year.” The Associated Press
