Flash flood warnings rebounded to 79 active alerts Thursday across 13 states — the first uptick after three consecutive days of decline from Monday’s peak of 114 — as the multi-day storm system widened its geographic footprint to include Washington state and deepened its grip across a saturated central Plains.
The jump from Wednesday’s 70-alert count reflects both new issuances in the western Plains and ongoing extensions in the South. The National Weather Service in Little Rock extended a flash flood warning for southwestern Dallas County in Arkansas through 9:30 a.m. CDT Thursday, with Doppler radar confirming between 5 and 9 inches of rain had already fallen across the warned area. Rainfall was still arriving at 1 to 2 inches per hour as of early morning, and flash flooding was confirmed as ongoing.
Across the central Plains, the compounding effects of multi-day rainfall have left little capacity in the soil to absorb additional rain. The National Weather Service cautioned that saturated conditions across portions of Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska mean even moderate additional rainfall could trigger flash flooding. In Kansas, active warning coverage stretched across more than two dozen counties Thursday, including Cheyenne, Decatur, Gove, Graham, Logan, Norton, Sherman, Thomas, Wallace, Shawnee, Douglas, Lyon, Franklin, Coffey, Anderson, Morris, Wabaunsee, Ottawa, Dickinson, and Geary. Neighboring Colorado counties Kit Carson and Yuma, and Nebraska counties Dundy, Hitchcock, and Red Willow, also remained under active alerts.
Oklahoma, which led the national exposure count Wednesday with more than 20 counties under warning, continued to post active alerts Thursday in Osage, Mayes, Rogers, Washington, and Pawnee counties. The National Weather Service warned that streams in northeastern Oklahoma were still rising from excess runoff and that urban drainage systems in the region could remain overwhelmed for several more hours.
Washington state’s appearance on Thursday’s alert map — absent from Wednesday’s 12-state list — extended the active flood corridor from the Gulf Coast to the Pacific Northwest, underscoring the breadth of a storm system that has now maintained major warning counts for five consecutive days.
The National Weather Service advises drivers to turn around and not attempt to cross flooded roadways, noting that most flood deaths occur in vehicles and that flood depths are especially difficult to gauge after dark.
For local conditions in the most heavily affected portions of the corridor, see Wichita weather and Little Rock weather.