Area residents slogged through more rain yesterday, suffering through the tail end of a spring storm that killed more than 20 people across the South before deluging the Washington region with its wettest single day on record.
Authorities reported 3.73 inches of rain Sunday at Washington Dulles International Airport and 2.63 inches at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, both records. More rain yesterday set the weather stations on track for the wettest May on record.
The rainfall came from the same weather pattern that spawned deadly tornadoes across the South, leaving a wake of death and destruction. The nation has now suffered almost twice the normal number of twisters for this time of year.
Greg Forbes, who tracks tornadoes for the Weather Channel, said the underlying cause of the rash of violent weather was uncertain. It could be just a coincidence or the result of warmer-than-average ocean water combined with a flurry of jet streams.
However, Mr. Forbes said, the tornadoes are not likely the result of global warming. “It could be … just a sloshing of the atmosphere,” he said.
Relentless rains — which added another 0.67 inch at Dulles Airport and 1.26 inches at Reagan Airport yesterday, forced officials to declare flood warnings that were extended into the evening before the storm moved out of the region.
Video: Heavy rains cause serious damage in Maryland
Wind gusts of 50 mph contributed to downed trees and widespread power failures that roiled rush hours and damaged homes.
The two-day rainfall at Dulles Airport exceeded the 4.22-inch average for all of May and brought the total since May 1 to 7.04 inches, National Weather Service forecaster Luis Rosa said.
“We are up there now,” said Mr. Rosa, who noted that the wettest May at Dulles was 10.26 inches in 1988. “So it could possibly turn out to be the wettest May on record.”
Mr. Forbes gave a preliminary count of 654 tornadoes nationwide this year, compared with the average of 359 by mid-May. He said 19 tornadoes have touched down in Virginia, which normally gets about 20 twisters in an entire year. Three tornadoes have occurred in Maryland.
“I think we’re at a record pace,” Mr. Forbes said. “If we keep going — which it looks like we probably will — we’ll probably be on a pace that would be the most tornadoes for the first five months of the year.”
About 100 people have been killed by tornadoes so far this year, compared with 81 in all of 2007, National Weather Service statistics show.
The U.S. death toll is the highest since 130 people were killed in 1998, according to the weather service. The highest number of tornado-related deaths was reported in 1953, when 519 people died.
On Saturday, severe storms erupted over the Southern Plains and swept east, killing at least 25 people in Missouri, Oklahoma, Georgia and Alabama.
Among the dead were three people in Oklahoma who were rushing to reach a relative’s house in their car; a woman whose car was blown off a road near Seneca, Mo.; and four family members — Rick Rountree, his wife, his 13-year-old son, and his mother-in-law — who were in a van on the way to a friend’s wedding when a tornado with winds of 170 mph struck the Seneca area Saturday night.
One of the biggest problems yesterday was in Prince George’s County, where a sinkhole 30 feet wide and 12 feet deep formed, which forced the evacuation of two homes in Temple Hills, officials said. The porch of one home collapsed into the hole, and officials also had to close several roads because of flooding.
In Alexandria, firefighters responded to dozens of calls for downed trees in roadways, fire department spokesman Luis Santano said. Trees also fell into the roofs of at least two houses, he said. One home was unoccupied, and the family living in the other spent the night with relatives.
The basement wall of a McLean home collapsed after being weakened by water, Fairfax County fire department spokesman Dan Schmidt said. In Stafford County, officials continued to help the dozens of residents displaced by a tornado last week that caused more than $10 million in damage.
Stafford County spokeswoman Cathy Riddle said workers, residents and volunteers had picked up 100 tons of debris last weekend but that the continuing rainy weather was complicating recovery efforts.
“It’s not helping the situation overall,” she said. “We’re all just praying for warm, dry, sunny weather.”
Maryland officials said the weather forced the closure of roughly 23 roads, mostly in the counties of Anne Arundel, Charles, Montgomery and Prince George’s.
Prince George’s fire spokesman Mark Brady said crews responded to calls for flooded basements and at least a dozen cars trapped in water yesterday morning. The county courthouse also was closed.
The storms closed schools in Charles, Culpeper, Fauquier and Stafford counties, and tens of thousands of homes were left without power.
Baltimore Gas & Electric reported more than 16,000 Maryland customers without power yesterday evening. Pepco said there were 6,083 outages in the District and Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. Dominion Electric reported 2,214 outages in Northern Virginia.
The rains will help replenish low water supplies in the area but could stunt crop growth, said Julie Oberg, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of Agriculture.
Don VanHassent, assistant director of the Maryland Forest Service, suggested residents prune trees to keep them from falling. However, no preventive method is “absolutely fool-proof,” he said.
“It’s like putting [the tree] into really soupy oatmeal or putting it into oatmeal with water,” Mr. VanHassent said. “It all depends on what the soil’s consistency is like.”
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
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