May 27, 2015

Severe storms slammed the Great Plains this past week and the Arkansas River was another victim. The river swelled to epic proportions as evidenced by the image taken by the Aqua satellite on May 26, 2015. Flooding could last for weeks in the wake of unprecedented amounts of May rainfall.
Those rainfall totals will climb still higher this week as thunderstorms dump even more rainfall on an already water-logged region. Fort Smith in western Arkansas has now recorded its wettest month in history with 18.33 inches of rain through 2:00 a.m. CDT Tuesday (May 25). This broke the previous record of 15.02 inches in June 1945. The rain likely will continue throughout the week, with the strongest rain to hit overnight Thursday into Friday.

Image: (Left) This natural-color satellite image was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite on May 26, 2015. (Right) This image taken on May 16, 2012 shows the area when the river is at normal water levels.