Flash Flood — Taylor, Kentucky

2022-09-05 · near Saloma, Taylor, Kentucky

Event narrative

Highway 527 in northern Taylor County became temporarily impassable due to water over the roadway.

Wider weather episode

A quasi-stationary surface front and weak mid-level cyclone continued to meander across the Ohio and Tennessee valleys on September 5th and 6th, providing localized convergence and broad forcing for ascent across central Kentucky. Temperatures in the low-to-mid 80s and dewpoints in the low 70s facilitated the development of around 2000 J/kg SBCAPE and Precipitable Water values approaching 2 inches during the afternoon and evening hours. The aforementioned thermodynamic and kinematic support was sufficient to promote widespread convection during the afternoon and evening hours on both September 5th and 6th. Relatively stagnant flow throughout most of the depth of the troposphere contributed to slow storm motion, resulting in localized flash flooding where the heaviest showers and thunderstorms developed and persisted. Multiple reports of flooding were observed in Taylor County on the afternoon of the 5th, with flooding being observed in Barren County on the afternoon of the 6th.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.4240, -85.4061)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1058152. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.