USA National Forecast

A Break For Soaked Texas and Oklahoma Has Arrived

For a large majority of the Southern Plains, a drier weather pattern has finally arrived after weeks of flooding rainfall. The last of the old regime has finally been swept out of deep South Texas, but not before Brownsville broke its all-time May rainfall record Sunday.

(INTERACTIVE MAP: Latest Flood Alerts)

A cold front plunged into the southern Plains this weekend, and the jet stream is finally making a northward migration. This is allowing drier, more stable air aloft to take hold in the Southern Plains.

While this won't be strong enough to inhibit all thunderstorms, thunderstorms will be much less numerous this week in Texas and Oklahoma. In essence, an extended period of mainly dry conditions is likely for most of Texas and Oklahoma in the week ahead.

(FORECAST: Houston | Austin | Dallas | Oklahoma City)

Instead, this week's thunderstorm clusters will target the northern and central Plains, roughly from Kansas or Nebraska northward.

Though the soaking weather pattern has finally ended, officials in parts of Texas have warned that river flooding could last for weeks as some areas have seen more than 20 inches of rain during May. Several cities and two states have seen their wettest month on record.

(MORE: Record May Rainfall)

Recap: Flooding Over the Past Week

Early Friday morning a flash flood emergency was issued for portions of the Dallas metro area, where multiple water rescues are occurring and travel had become impossible in some areas. Just northeast of Dallas rainfall amounts of up to 7 inches were reported from early Thursday morning to early Friday morning.

(MORE: Dallas Area Flash Flood Emergency)

Flash flooding was also reported Thursday in parts of Oklahoma and Texas. A flash flood emergency was issued in Lawton, Oklahoma.

On Wednesday, mudslides were reported near Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas panhandle, evacuations were prompted in the Fort Worth suburb of Blue Mound, numerous streets were flooded in Great Bend, Kansas, and early Wednesday, another round of soaking rain descended into Houston, just 24 hours after a massive flood event brought parts of the Houston area to a halt.

(MORE: Jaw-Dropping Images | Houston Flood vs. Allison)

Widespread flash flooding also occurred in Austin during the Memorial Day holiday weekend. Shoal Creek was just one of many creeks and rivers that came out of its banks and flooded the area Monday afternoon.

Memorial Day weekend flooding also swamped Wimberley, Texas and several locations in Oklahoma.

(MORE: Catastrophic Flooding)

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Southern Plains Severe and Flooding May 2015 (PHOTOS)