The nation’s flash flood count kept climbing Wednesday, with 31 Flash Flood Warnings active across Arizona, Illinois, Louisiana, Montana and Texas — up from 25 a day earlier and more than double last Monday’s tally. Arizona is the new addition to the map, while Texas remains the hardest-hit state by far.
In Arizona, the National Weather Service has warnings covering the Yavapai County Mountains, Northern Gila County, Yavapai County Valleys and Basins, and the Oak Creek and Sycamore Canyons area — terrain prone to fast runoff during heavy rain.
Texas continues to carry the bulk of the alerts, but the story there has shifted from flash flooding to river flooding. The National Weather Service in Austin/San Antonio has Flood Warnings out for multiple Hill Country waterways: the Nueces River at Laguna and the Frio River below Dry Frio, both affecting Uvalde County, plus the West Nueces River at Brackettville, affecting Uvalde and Kinney counties. Forecasters say minor lowland flooding is expected on the Frio and Nueces by tonight and this evening, respectively, while the West Nueces is expected to run from this afternoon into tomorrow morning. Uvalde, Edwards, Kinney, Real, Gillespie and Kerr counties are all under some form of river flood warning.
Farther west, warnings also stretch across a wide swath of the Trans-Pecos and Big Bend region — Ward, Crane, Upton, Reagan, Pecos, Terrell and Reeves counties, along with the Davis Mountains, Marfa Plateau, Chinati Mountains, Presidio Valley, Chisos Basin and Brewster County backcountry.
The shift from flash-flood warnings toward slower-moving river flood warnings in Texas suggests the immediate rainfall threat there is easing even as saturated ground and swollen rivers keep flood risk elevated for days. Illinois, Louisiana and Montana remain on the list from Tuesday, though the National Weather Service data shows Texas and Arizona driving the day’s net increase in warnings.
The safety guidance from the National Weather Service hasn’t changed: most flood deaths occur in vehicles, and drivers should turn around rather than cross flooded roads, particularly at night when high water is harder to see. With record counts of active warnings two days running, forecasters are watching whether the flood threat continues to migrate westward toward the desert Southwest or holds in the Hill Country river basins, where several waterways remain at or above minor flood stage.