English: April 7, 2025 March 9, 2025

After unleashing dozens of destructive tornadoes, a slow-moving storm system dumped heavy rain across the U.S. Midwest and Southeast in early April 2025. In some areas, 10-15 inches (25-38 centimeters) fell between April 1 and 6. According to hydrograph data from the National Weather Service, the rain fueled major floods on several tributaries of the Mississippi River, particularly within the Ohio River watershed in Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana, and along the Black River and White River in Arkansas.

A break in the clouds on April 7, 2025, allowed the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite to acquire this false-color image of widespread flooding. To help visualize the extent of the flooding, this image is paired with a second Terra MODIS false-color image of the same area on March 9, before the deluge. Six states are seen to be affected by floods in this image. Moving clockwise from the northwest, they are Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri.

Both images were assembled from false-color data using a combination of infrared and visible light (MODIS bands 7,2,1). Floodwater appears navy or black; vegetation is bright green; and bare ground is brown. This band combination makes it easier to spot changes in river dimensions.

Western Kentucky was particularly hard hit, according to news reports. In Frankfort, floodwater destroyed dozens of homes as the Kentucky River rose to 48.27 feet (14.71 meters) on April 7, the second-highest level on record. Floods swamped many buildings downtown, as well as America’s oldest continuously operating distillery and part of a water treatment plant.

Though rain in the region has stopped and flooding on some rivers has crested, forecasts from the National Weather Service show that water levels on the Mississippi River will continue to rise in the coming days as water works its way downstream through networks of lakes, reservoirs, and rivers in the region.

NASA’s Disasters Response Coordination System has been activated to support federal partners in the identification of damage, flooding, and landslide risks following the severe weather in the southern U.S. The team will be posting maps and data products on its open-access mapping portal as new information becomes available.