What Shreveport-Bossier Needs to Know

Last week, the Shreveport and Bossier City areas experienced severe storms that led to extreme flash flooding. Multiple major roadways were overrun with water, causing vehicles to stall, and motorists needing to be rescued.

While the water from those flooded roadways eventually receded, other areas of the region were just starting to see flooding concerns. This includes the Red River.

How Upstream Rainfall Impacts the Red River in Shreveport

The Red River not only swells with the rainfall from the Shreveport and Bossier areas, but it also gets filled with all of the rainfall from upstream too. The Red River basin expands north into Arkansas, and west into Texas and Oklahoma. So excessive rainfall in those areas can lead to rising water levels downstream.

These factors have helped contribute to a rising water level in the Shreveport and Bossier City area for the Red River. Currently, the NOAA/National Weather Service flood gauge in Shreveport has the river at 25.24 feet (as of 3pm on 5/5/25). The first level of “flood stage” is called the “Action” level. For this guague on the Red River in Shreveport, that is 26 feet.

Monitoring the Red River: Key Points

Which means the Red River is less than a foot below “Action” flood stage as of 3pm on May 5th, 2025.

The NOAA/National Weather Service forecast for his gauge on the Red River does predict the Red River to cross into the first flood stage this week. Currently they predict that will happen by Thursday, but this is just a forecast, and could be impacted by some of the things that are currently taking place, and are expected to take place.

Why the Red River is Expected to Keep Rising

For Shreveport and Bossier purposes, the Red River has some massive flooding issues upstream. Over the weekend, video was posted showing the Red River spilling far over its banks at the I-35 crossing on the Texas/Oklahoma border.

As that water makes its way downstream, you can expect the Red River at Shreveport to rise. Which is probably what NOAA and the National Weather Service are factoring in for their forecast of the Red River gauge in Shreveport hitting flood stage this week.

In addition to the downstream flow, the National Weather Service is predicting more flooding rainfalls coming to the area this week. Not just for Shreveport, but for the upstream areas too.

So an already rising river will have to deal with an influx of direct rainfall, and upstream rainfall. We might see that flood forecast number climbs heading into the weekend.