Verde River flooding puts crossings at risk through Monday morning

Drivers facing water across a low crossing on the Verde River should turn around, and campers and hikers should avoid streams and creeks. Flooding is continuing between Bartlett Lake and the Salt River in Maricopa County, Arizona, with low-water crossings at risk and river recreation potentially unsafe. The warning runs through Monday morning—not to a promised hour when the river becomes safe. ⁴

The National Weather Service’s Phoenix office named Rio Verde and Fort McDowell as locations exposed to the flooding. Its statement issued at 6:28 a.m. Mountain Standard Time on Sunday, November 1, 2026, continued an existing flood warning until 8 a.m. MST Monday, November 2. This is an ongoing river flood, not simply a forecast that more rain might eventually produce one. ¹

For anyone deciding whether to drive through the corridor or spend time beside the river, the important distinction is between a broad warning and conditions at a particular access point. The bulletin establishes that flooding is occurring along the named river reach. It does not establish that every crossing is underwater, every road is closed or either named community is flooded in its entirety. ⁴

That wording covers both crossings where water is already present and crossings where inundation may be about to happen. It also makes clear that the danger is not limited to motorists: a trip into or alongside the channel can be unsafe without anyone attempting to cross a road. ⁴

At 6:28 a.m. MST Sunday, a USGS gauge on the Verde River just north of its meeting with the Salt River measured a stage of 7.98 feet and a flow of 3,420 cubic feet per second, according to the Weather Service. Those figures are observations at that place and time, not a predicted crest. ⁴

The measurements answer different questions. Stage describes the river level at the gauge; it is not the depth of water covering a roadway. Flow describes how much water passes that point. The 3,420-cubic-feet-per-second reading is not a verified release rate from Bartlett Dam. Using either number as a test of whether a particular crossing is passable would give it a meaning the bulletin does not support. ⁴

The statement does not supply a station number or a flood-stage threshold for that gauge. Nor does this single observation establish whether the river subsequently rose or fell. There is no later verified reading in the available account on which to base an improving-conditions claim. ⁴

The Weather Service attributed the continuing flood to excessive rainfall and an upstream dam release. Saturday’s warning described streams continuing to rise as runoff from earlier rain reached them, and linked the hazard to releases upstream from Bartlett Dam. The bulletins do not divide the downstream flow into amounts attributable to runoff and releases. ^{1 2}

The Verde River warning began at 2:41 p.m. MST Saturday, October 31. Sunday’s statement continued that warning with the same Monday, 8 a.m. expiration; it did not start a new event or extend the deadline. The matching warning identifier, KPSR.FA.W.0013, ties the original issuance to the continuation. ^{2 4 26}

An intervening Weather Service alert on Saturday carried confusing timing: it said a warning had been reissued through Monday at 8 a.m., while its headline listed a Saturday, 4 p.m. expiration. The later, event-specific Sunday statement provides the clear current endpoint for the Verde warning: 8 a.m. MST November 2. The older alert should not be read as evidence that this river warning has ended. ^{3 4}

In our October 31 broadcast, we reported flooding along Indian Bend Wash under a warning initially due to end at 1:15 a.m.; that deadline was later extended to 3:15 a.m. The current Verde River warning is separate. Those earlier overnight deadlines do not describe the hazard now continuing between Bartlett Lake and the Salt River.

For Monday travel plans, the warning’s expiration is a point to check for an updated statement—not permission to enter a flooded crossing. An administrative endpoint cannot establish that water has receded from a particular road.

No individual Verde River crossing is named in the verified warning, and no timestamped official closure notice establishing a specific crossing’s status is available here. There is also no verified casualty count, rescue total, evacuation order or property-damage total in this account. Those gaps should not be mistaken for confirmation that no impacts occurred.

The immediate advice is straightforward: do not drive onto a flooded road, and avoid streams and creeks when hiking or camping. The Weather Service warns that most flood deaths occur in vehicles. Until updated observations and local conditions establish otherwise, the river’s warning deadline is not a substitute for that precaution. ⁴