Flood Watch — Wasatch Plateau/Book Cliffs; Central Mountains; Castle Country; San Rafael Swell was recorded by Global Incident Tracker on Thursday, 17 September 2026 at 11:48 UTC. The event is classified as a flood incident with a severity rating of Severe, and was detected through the US National Weather Service (NWS).
Flood Watch issued September 17 at 5:48AM MDT until September 18 at 12:00AM MDT by NWS Salt Lake City UT * WHAT...Flash flooding caused by excessive rainfall continues to be possible. * WHERE...A portion of Utah, including the following areas, Castle Country, Central Mountains, San Rafael Swell and Wasatch Plateau/Book Cliffs. * WHEN...Through this evening. * IMPACTS...Excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, dry washes, slot canyons, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations such as slickrock areas and recent burn scars. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - Showers and thunderstorms are expected to re-develop this afternoon across the area and continue through the evening hours. Rainfall rates between 0.25 to 1 inch per hour with locally higher rates under the heaviest storms are expected. This will cause flash flooding in areas such as normally dry washes, slot
Where this happened
The incident is located in United States (North America), whose capital is Washington, D.C.. Historically, United States is most affected by hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes, earthquakes and floods. You can follow every incident recorded in this country, updated live, on the United States incident tracker.
Approximate coordinates of the reported event are 37.100°, -95.700°. The marker on the map above shows this position; for news-derived reports the location reflects the place named in media coverage and may represent a district or city rather than an exact site.
Understanding flood events
River, flash, urban and coastal flooding events. Flood damage depends less on total rainfall than on how fast water arrives and where it has to go. Flash floods in urban areas can rise within minutes because sealed surfaces stop absorption, while river floods build over days and allow more warning time.
How severity is rated
Global Incident Tracker rates every event on a four-step scale — Minor, Moderate, Severe and Extreme — derived from the source signal: earthquake magnitude, official GDACS alert colour, or the volume of independent media reporting for news-derived incidents. This event is currently rated Severe. Ratings can change as more information becomes available, and a rating is a monitoring signal rather than an official government assessment.
Safety guidance for flood situations
- Never walk or drive through floodwater — 15 cm of moving water can knock you down and 60 cm can float a car.
- Move to higher floors or higher ground early; do not wait for water to reach you.
- Switch off electricity at the mains if water is entering the building and it is safe to reach.
- Treat all floodwater as contaminated: wash hands, boil drinking water and clean wounds.
- Follow only official instructions from local authorities and emergency services — this page is a monitoring record, not an emergency alert.
Data and verification
This record was generated automatically from the US National Weather Service (NWS) and de-duplicated against our archive. Early reports for any incident can be revised: locations get refined, magnitudes are recalculated and impact figures change as assessments arrive. We deliberately do not publish casualty numbers unless an official source states them. The original source report is linked at the top of this page.
Keep watching the situation on our live world incident map, browse every floods we track on the Flood tracker, or see today's global picture on the incidents today page.
Timeline and sources
Official warning
Issued by U.S. National Weather Service. A warning or forecast describes a hazard; on its own it is not a report that harm occurred.
How statuses are decided · the number of reports is never treated as confirmation.
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· received · event time 17 Sep 2026, 11:48 UTCFirst report Official warning
First recorded from U.S. National Weather Service.
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· received · event time 17 Sep 2026, 18:14 UTCAlso reported Official warning
Also reported by U.S. National Weather Service: "Flood Watch — Wasatch Plateau/Book Cliffs; Central Mountains; Castle Country; San Rafael Swell"
Times are when this site received each report, in UTC; the event time is shown where the source gave one. 2 reports are attached to this incident. Copies of one syndicated story count as one report.
Conditions at the time
No rainfall was recorded that day, and the temperature peaked at 37°C. Conditions are shown for context only — they do not establish a cause.
Weather reanalysis for this location and date via Open-Meteo.