The National Weather Service is maintaining 57 active flood warnings across 13 states — Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin — as the broader flood emergency that peaked Thursday begins a gradual consolidation, with the most persistent pressure now concentrated along the Rock River corridor in Wisconsin and Illinois.
The shift from 72 flash flood warnings Thursday to 57 flood warnings today reflects a change in alert type rather than a clear easing of conditions. Flash flood warnings signal an immediate, life-threatening threat; flood warnings indicate rivers already at or approaching flood stage with ongoing inundation. The hazard has moved from the acute phase into a sustained, elevated-river phase across much of the affected region.
The Rock River is the dominant thread in the current warning picture. The National Weather Service has issued continuing warnings at multiple gauges along the river’s length: at Newville and Afton affecting Rock County, Wisconsin; near Lake Koshkonong affecting Jefferson and Rock Counties; at Fort Atkinson affecting Jefferson County; and near Lebanon at the Highway MM Bridge affecting Dodge County. The warnings extend downstream into Illinois, where Jersey, Jackson, and Randolph Counties are also listed in active alerts. Across Missouri, Cooper, Saline, Perry, Ste. Genevieve, and St. Charles Counties remain under warnings, keeping the lower Mississippi River tributaries in the picture as well.
For Houston weather, conditions bear watching — Louisiana and Texas remain on the active-states list, and any residual moisture from the south-central Texas flooding that drove headlines earlier this week continues to factor into the Gulf Coast flood picture.
The geographic breadth of the warning list — 13 states stretching from Washington in the Pacific Northwest to Alabama in the Southeast — underscores that this is not a single-storm event but a multi-system pattern keeping river levels elevated across a wide swath of the country.
The National Weather Service urges motorists not to attempt to drive around barricades or through flooded roadways. Pedestrians are cautioned to stay away from riverbanks. Real-time river gauge data and local warning updates are available at weather.gov.
The overall alert count has trended down over 48 hours — from 78 broader flood warnings Wednesday to 72 flash flood warnings Thursday to 57 flood warnings today — but the Rock River system and Missouri River tributaries are not expected to recede quickly, and additional rainfall in the upper Midwest could slow that trend.