National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

The National Weather Service has made changes to our Flash Flood Warnings that includes impact based information and tags at the bottom of the warnings based on expected severity.  These features are similar to our current Severe Thunderstorm and Tornado Warnings.

The Flash Flood Warnings (FFW) will now have tags and information at the bottom that includes:

  • No Tag ("base" FFW) - Used when flash flooding impact damage is possible.
  • Considerable - Unusual severity - urgent action is needed.
  • Catastrophic - Threat to life and catastrophic damage; levels rarely seen.

IMPORTANT:  Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) via cell phones will ONLY forward warnings with the "considerable" or "catastrophic" tags.