Flash flood warnings retreated Tuesday from their Monday peak of 114 across 19 states to 94 active warnings spanning 14 states — but the narrowing footprint masked concentrated, ongoing hazards in two distinct regions: the Louisiana-Texas-Oklahoma border corridor and the Virginia Tidewater coast.
The most acute morning activity was centered in the Ark-La-Tex zone. The National Weather Service documented 1 to 2 inches of rainfall in Louisiana parishes including Bienville, Bossier, Natchitoches, and Red River by early Tuesday, with flash flooding described in active alerts as “ongoing or expected to begin shortly.” Just across the Texas border, the National Weather Service in Fort Worth reported 1 to 3 inches in northeastern Lamar County, with an additional 1 to 2 inches possible before 9 a.m. CDT. Bowie and Red River counties in Texas, and McCurtain and Choctaw counties in Oklahoma, were also under active warnings as the system pushed moisture north and east along the Gulf Plains.
A separate threat is building along Virginia’s coast. The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch for coastal southeast Virginia effective from 1 p.m. EDT through Tuesday evening, covering 11 jurisdictions: Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, Hampton/Poquoson, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Isle of Wight, James City, Surry, and York. Excessive runoff is expected to flood low-lying roads, underpasses, and drainage-stressed areas in a region that remained outside Monday’s warning perimeter. Virginia Beach and the broader Hampton Roads metro should expect deteriorating conditions through the afternoon rush.
West Virginia remained active with warnings in Boone and Logan counties. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, and Washington state also carried active warnings Tuesday, though at lower densities than in the storm’s earlier phases.
The shift represents a continued eastward pivot of the flood threat that has dominated the national weather map since the weekend. States that entered the warning list Monday as the system’s eastern flank expanded — including Kentucky and several mid-Atlantic states — have largely rotated off Tuesday’s count as the core convection reorganized along the Gulf Coast and southern Appalachians.
The National Weather Service repeated its standard flood safety warning across all 14 affected states: turn around, don’t drown when encountering flooded roads. The agency noted in multiple active alerts that most flood fatalities occur in vehicles. Residents in warned counties should avoid low-water crossings and monitor local emergency services for updated road closures through Tuesday evening.