Flash Flood Emergency Declared in Florida, Continuing Wild Weekend

It was a wild weekend of weather for some parts of the U.S., with conditions more reminiscent of the peak of the spring season than the end of October. From severe weather in Texas to a flash flooding emergency in Florida, here is a look at what Americans are cleaning up from as the new week begins.

Flash Flood Emergency for Florida

A Flash Flood Emergency was issued in Lake County, Florida, on Sunday night, after the region picked up over 19 inches of rain. The flooding was triggered by a rash of severe storms that roared through the Gulf Coast late Sunday and into Monday, continuing the trend of a rocky weekend for weather in the southern U.S.

Vehicles were rendered useless early Monday as the rain socked in Central Florida. State Route 46 near the community of Sanford was left underwater, snarling traffic and bringing life to a halt.

The stormy conditions are set to continue on Monday for the Orlando area and beyond. A Flood Watch is in effect through 8 pm Monday night for Orlando and some areas of the Atlantic coast from Daytona Beach to the north of Vero Beach.

The Lake County Sheriff's Department confirmed the formation of two sinkholes near a road in Eustis late Sunday. Several roads were forced to close in the towns of Titusville and Mount Dora as flooding overtook the region.

The heaviest rain on Tuesday is forecast to remain to the north of Jacksonville. The balance of the week is shaping up to be mostly dry across the Sunshine State.

For example, after waking up to lingering clouds on Tuesday morning, Orlando will see the appearance of sunshine in the afternoon. Highs will reach the upper 70s on Tuesday and Wednesday in the Magic City before a cool front dips to the south and brings in cooler readings to the peninsula. Orlando will top out with an unseasonably chilly high of just 70 degrees on Friday. The rain will stay away from this part of the peninsula throughout the week, making for pleasant conditions for touring the theme parks.

Rough Weekend for Texas and the Gulf Coast

The action kicked off earlier in the week in Texas and into the Gulf Coast region. A line of severe thunderstorms erupted late Friday near Houston, knocking out power to thousands of customers before tracking across the Gulf Coast as the weekend progressed.  

According to the NWS, a gust of 64 mph was recorded in Hempstead, Texas. Widespread wind speeds of 45 to 60 mph were recorded throughout the Houston metro area. The downtown area clocked a gust of 59 mph during the peak of the activity. The storms also came with heavy rain and frequent lightning strikes.

Approximately 260,000 customers were without power by the time the sun came up on Saturday across the southeastern corner of Texas. Over 150,000 of these outages were in the Houston metro area. The bulk of the outages had been restored by Sunday morning.

The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex also got in on the storms on Saturday evening. Gusts reaching as high as 67 mph were confirmed in Fort Worth as the storms blew through this part of North Texas.

Saturday's storms came on the heels of a rash of storms on Friday across the Metroplex. Hundreds of lightning strikes lit up the skies on Friday morning in Dallas. Six houses reportedly caught fire in Dallas and Denton counties at the hands of lightning strikes in the predawn hours on Friday. Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport recorded 3.10 inches of rain on Friday, an amount that was high enough to set a new daily rainfall record. It was also the third-wettest day in October in 25 years at this major airport hub.

The weekend weather snapped trees and left behind minor structural damage in the central portions of Fort Worth. While the NWS had originally suspected the presence of a tornado, the agency's survey team later determined that the damage was most likely caused by straight-line winds.

The line of storms continued to push to the east on Monday. Heavy rain is in the forecast for the southern U.S. through at least Tuesday. Forecasters are calling for widespread rainfall totals that land between 1 and 3 inches as the storms move into the Southeast. The heavy bands of rain are forecast to creep up into the Carolinas by Tuesday. We will continue to keep an eye on this volatile weather pattern.