The national flood picture has shifted overnight from a containment story to an active-threat story: the National Weather Service now carries 72 flash flood warnings spanning 13 states — Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin — up from the 78 broader flood warnings reported Wednesday and now concentrated into the more urgent flash flood category.
The most acute pressure is in south-central Texas, where two separate warning areas are active simultaneously. The National Weather Service office in Austin/San Antonio issued a flash flood warning covering Bexar, southeastern Comal, central Guadalupe, and east-central Medina counties, in effect until 10:00 AM CDT, after Doppler radar detected thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the region before dawn. A separate watch-area warning covers 11 counties in west-central Texas — Concho, Crockett, Irion, Kimble, Mason, McCulloch, Menard, San Saba, Schleicher, Sutton, and Tom Green — where excessive runoff threatens rivers, creeks, streams, and low-lying areas through this evening. Residents in the San Antonio weather corridor should treat any flooded roadway as impassable. The National Weather Service is explicit: most flood deaths occur in vehicles.
In the Upper Midwest, the Rock River system that dominated Wednesday’s coverage remains in flood stage at multiple gauges. Active warnings persist for the Rock River at Newville, near Lake Koshkonong, at Fort Atkinson, at Afton, and at Jefferson — affecting Jefferson, Rock, and Winnebago counties across Wisconsin and Illinois. The system has not receded materially; it has simply been reclassified within a broader, more active national alert environment.
The geographic footprint has widened compared to yesterday’s 11-state count, now pulling in Texas prominently and maintaining coverage across the central and southern tier. The addition of active flash flood warnings — distinct from the river flood warnings that defined Wednesday’s story — signals that rainfall-driven, rapid-onset flooding is now the primary hazard alongside the slower-moving river flooding in Wisconsin and Illinois.
The National Weather Service advises residents in all affected areas to monitor updated forecasts closely, avoid flood-prone areas, and exercise particular caution after dark when flood conditions are harder to assess visually. Those along the Rock River corridor and in Houston weather area watersheds feeding into already-saturated systems should remain on alert as additional rounds of rainfall are possible through the period.