Thunderstorms hit the Dallas-Fort Worth area Sunday night into Monday and have

dropped massive amounts of rain in the span of 18 hours, inundating streets

flooding homes and forcing some drivers to abandon their vehicles in high water.

The rainfall in some areas qualifies as a 1-in-1,000-year flood, which means that in

any given year it has a 0.1% chance of happening. Such events could become more

frequent in the coming decades as the effects of climate change worsen. Climate

scientists have found that warming temperatures increases the frequency of bouts of extreme precipitation.

The east side of Dallas received 13 to 15 inches of rainfall over the past 24 hours, according to a reading

from Dallas Water Utilities. Most of the Dallas-Fort Worth area recorded 6 to 10 inches of rainfall.