Flash Flood — Smith, Texas

2026-01-09 · near Elkton, Smith, Texas

Event narrative

High water covered Loop 323 near Troup Highway and University Street in Tyler.

Wider weather episode

A weak cold front extended from Eastern Oklahoma into Northeast Texas during the late evening into the early morning hours of January 9th-10th, and separated a warm, moist, and unstable air mass to its east, with a slightly cooler but drier air mass to the west. A surface low developed during the evening and overnight hours along the frontal boundary, enhancing a deep southerly low level flow into East Texas and North Louisiana, with a longwave trough shifting east through the Rockies into the Southern Plains enhancing large scale forcing along and ahead of the front across the warm sector. Thus, scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms developed across this area, some of which produced locally heavy rainfall in the city of Tyler in Smith County Texas. Localized flash flooding was observed here where high water covered Loop 323 near Troup Highway and University Street, before the storms shifted east into Northwest Louisiana shortly after midnight and produced insolated instances of severe weather.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.3123, -95.2712)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1308431. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.