Severe Flood Warning Issued for Areas of Colorado, Texas, and Kansas Due to Threatening Flood Risks

Moisture from the remnants of Hurricane Polo is spreading across the southern and central Plains, and the National Weather Service has posted Flood Watches across southern Colorado, the Texas Panhandle, northwest Texas and northern Kansas.

Forecasters in Amarillo say parts of the Panhandles could see a rain event of historic proportions.

Road-trippers on I-25, I-40, I-27 and I-70 this week should build in extra time and keep an eye on local warnings.

Texas Panhandle: A Potentially Historic Soaking

The NWS office in Amarillo has a watch in effect from Tuesday morning, September 29, through Wednesday afternoon for Amarillo, Canyon, Dumas, Borger, Dalhart, Hereford and Palo Duro Canyon State Park, plus Cimarron and Texas counties in the Oklahoma Panhandle. Forecasters wrote that “this has the potential to be a high end to even historic rain event” for portions of the region, with the greatest flash flood risk in the western Panhandles.

Just south, the Lubbock office covers Parmer, Castro, Swisher, Bailey, Lamb and Cochran counties over the same window. Storms may repeatedly move over the same areas, many of which already received several inches of rain last week.

In far west Texas, the Midland office includes Van Horn and Guadalupe Mountains National Park, while the El Paso office covers El Paso and Hudspeth counties through late Tuesday night.

Colorado: San Luis Valley, San Juans and the Southeast Plains

Southern Colorado is under several overlapping watches. The Pueblo office has:

• Eastern San Juan Mountains (Wolf Creek Pass, South Fork, Creede) through late Tuesday night
• San Luis Valley (Alamosa, Monte Vista, Del Norte, Antonito) from Tuesday morning through Wednesday evening
• Southern Sangre de Cristos, the southern I-25 corridor and the southeast Plains (Trinidad, Walsenburg, Lamar, Springfield) from Tuesday morning through Thursday morning

In southwest Colorado, the Grand Junction office covers Durango, Cortez, Telluride, Ouray, Silverton and Pagosa Springs through late Tuesday night. Forecasters flagged burn scars as especially vulnerable and warned that unpaved roads could turn muddy and impassable.

Kansas: Manhattan to the Nebraska Line

In Kansas, the Topeka office extended its watch from Tuesday evening through Thursday afternoon for Manhattan, Wamego, Concordia, Marysville, Hiawatha and Seneca, citing training storms fed by remnant…