Central Texas floods of 2025

Central Texas floods of 2025, deadly flash flood event that devastated several counties in central Texas on July 4–7, 2025. Extreme rainfall produced by the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry and Hurricane Flossie, aided by other factors occurring in the atmosphere and at the surface, swelled several rivers and streams. The most severe flooding occurred in the Guadalupe River and its surrounding tributaries. The river rose by as high as 26 feet (7.9 meters) in less than one hour in some locations, and the sudden arrival of fast-moving water scoured parts of the river, washing away residences, businesses, and large trees, and damaging roads. Less than one week after the start of the natural disaster, the flooding had claimed the lives of at least 135 people. An early estimate of the cost of the disaster ranged from $18–22 billion.

Deaths attributed to flash floods were reported across six central Texas counties. Kerr county, where two branches of the Guadalupe River converge, was hardest hit, with at least 96 deaths—a figure that included 27 campers and staff from Camp Mystic, a girls’ summer camp situated in a low-lying Guadalupe River floodway.

The disaster stemmed from a convergence of meteorological and environmental factors. The remnants of Tropical Storm Barry, which had passed over the western edge of the Gulf of Mexico the previous week and stalled over the region, released substantial amounts of moisture. This moisture mixed with additional warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico and other areas of thunderstorms traveling across Mexico into central Texas from the Pacific—which included the remnants of Flossie, an eastern Pacific tropical cyclone. Between July 3 and July 6 the combined system released more than 20 inches (50.8 cm) of rain, which was funneled by the region’s steep hills and rocky terrain into low-lying areas. To make matters worse, central Texas—known colloquially as “Flash Flood Alley” because of the region’s long history of flash flood risk—had been enduring a period of extended drought, which hardened the soil, inhibiting its ability to absorb water. The combination of intense rainfall, hilly landscapes, and impervious surfaces allowed rainwater to move rapidly downhill and collect into rivers and streams.

In Kerrville the Guadalupe River rose approximately 26 feet within 45 minutes before dawn, increasing the river’s stream velocity from 8–10 cubic feet (0.23–0.28 cubic meters) per second to 120,000 cubic feet (3,398 cubic meters) per second. The water continued down the riverbed, reaching the community of Comfort by 10 am and dramatically raising river levels by 31 feet (9.4 meters) in less than two hours with stream velocity peaking at 177,000 cubic feet (5,012 cubic meters) per second. Flood gauges indicated that the river in Kerrville crested at 34.3 feet (about 10.5 meters), the third highest in the city’s history. Upstream, where the north and south forks of the river converge in Hunt, the river rose to 37.5 feet (11.4 meters), surpassing all previous flood records, including a similar flash flood event that took place in July 1987 that saw the Guadalupe River crest at 31.5 feet.