Of course all of the excessive rain we've had in Tulsa and northeast Oklahoma has been a huge catalyst for our ongoing flooding along the Arkansas River, but it goes beyond simply what's falling in our immediate area.
The Arkansas River basin stretches all the way back into Kansas and even eastern Colorado. Heavy rains that fall within this watershed drain into the Arkansas River and, with time, that drains into northeast Oklahoma too. In addition, rains that fall in the Cimarron River across northern Oklahoma also lead into Lake Keystone as well.
Unfortunately, we could see 2 to 3 more inches of rain across portions of southern Kansas and into northern Oklahoma in both of these river basins through the long holiday weekend. This would obviously lead to increased inflow once again and could lead to lake levels and river levels starting to rise again instead of falling like we need.
Overall, we need the weather pattern to calm down not only here in Green Country, but to our northwest as well. Unfortunately, we look to keep an unsettled pattern with additional scattered storm chances going into the middle of next week.