The destructive Kerr County flood occurred on 4 July 2025. Understanding the event and access to climate information requires two separate source trails: weather and river records for the flood, and dated publication or access records for climate assessments.
Correction, 7 October 2026: This article previously conflated the flood’s chronology with climate-report access and asserted a causal link without supporting evidence. The May 2024 event date and placeholder FOIA reference have been removed. This revised guide does not claim that a website change caused the flood.
In this article
What the National Weather Service reports
The NWS Austin/San Antonio July 2025 hydrologic report describes repeated thunderstorms during 4–6 July, associated with tropical-system remnants and a weak frontal boundary. It identifies historic rainfall in Kerr County and other parts of the service area.
The report lists a Guadalupe River crest at Hunt of 37.52 feet at 5:10 a.m. on 4 July and notes destruction of the gauge. Its Kerrville entry lists a 37.48-foot crest at 6:45 a.m. These are station-specific river stages, not rainfall totals. The PDF’s cover carries an inconsistent preparation date; cite the report’s July 2025 title and relevant station page rather than treating that cover date as the event date.
Where to find the climate assessment
The NOAA Institutional Repository entry for the Fifth National Climate Assessment provides a durable bibliographic route to the 2023 assessment, DOI 10.7930/NCA5.2023. Preserve the report edition, chapter and page number when citing it.
NOAA’s climate page explains the redirection of climate.gov material under its science-policy guidance. A website’s availability, a report’s continued existence and access to a particular interactive tool are separate questions.
Separate event evidence from climate context
| Question | Relevant evidence |
|---|---|
| What happened on 4 July? | Dated rainfall, river measurements and NWS products. |
| What was communicated? | Original warnings, issue times and local response records. |
| How does climate affect regional risk? | Assessment chapters and event-attribution research. |
| Was a source harder to access? | Dated site observations and repository copies. |
Build a reproducible record
Save the source URL, retrieval date and original file. Keep issue time and timezone explicit for warnings. Use existing records to reconstruct decisions; do not infer a failure solely from an unavailable webpage. A specific attribution or institutional-failure claim needs its own evidence beyond the timing of two events.