Flash flood warnings covered ground in seven states this morning, with the National Weather Service maintaining 48 active alerts stretching from northern Arizona to the Gulf Coast as thunderstorms parked over saturated terrain and dropped multiple inches of rain in a matter of hours.
The warnings span Arizona, Illinois, Louisiana, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. In north-central Arizona, the National Weather Service office in Flagstaff issued a Flash Flood Warning for Coconino and Yavapai counties until 6:30 a.m. MST after Doppler radar detected a cluster of thunderstorms producing heavy rain from Clarkdale northward into Sycamore Canyon, with flash flooding already underway. Farther south, Gila and Maricopa counties were also placed under warnings as the same storm system tracked through central Arizona.
In Texas, warnings covered a broad swath of the Hill Country and western part of the state, including Crockett, Schleicher, Sutton and Uvalde counties. The National Weather Service reported radar-indicated storms had already dropped between 1 and 2.5 inches of rain in some warned areas, with additional totals of up to 2.5 inches possible before the storms move on. Forecasters described the threat as “life threatening flash flooding” and said flooding was ongoing or expected to begin shortly across multiple warned zones.
Additional alerts extended into New Mexico’s South Central Mountains, along with counties in Utah, Illinois, Louisiana and Wyoming, reflecting a wide band of moisture-rich storms moving across the central and southern United States.
The National Weather Service urged residents in warned areas to stay off flooded roads, noting that most flood deaths occur in vehicles. The agency’s standard warning — “turn around, don’t drown” — was repeated across multiple alerts, along with a reminder that flooding is especially dangerous at night, when drivers have a harder time recognizing high water until it’s too late. Low-water crossings, forecasters said, can turn dangerous within minutes as storms intensify overhead.
With storms continuing to train over some of the same areas through the morning, forecasters said additional warnings were likely as the system progresses. The National Weather Service is advising residents in the warned counties across Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Illinois, Louisiana and Wyoming to monitor local alerts closely, since conditions in flash flood events can change within minutes rather than hours.