Flash Flood — Graves, Kentucky

2023-07-19 · near Lowes, Graves, Kentucky

Wider weather episode

Historic flash flooding struck parts of far western Kentucky. Among the hardest hit counties was Graves County, which had not completely recovered from a catastrophic tornado in December of 2021. The city of Mayfield, which bore the brunt of the December 2021 tornado, experienced catastrophic flooding that inundated dozens of homes, businesses, schools, and various other institutions. The governor of Kentucky visited the city of Mayfield to tour the damage. Some smaller communities suffered catastrophic damage, such as Arlington in Carlisle County, where multiple homes were flooded. Swiftly moving water through Arlington prompted water rescues from emergency services. Widespread flash flooding of roads made travel difficult or impossible for several hours during the peak of the heaviest rainfall in the morning. Among the most impactful road closures was Interstate 69 in southwest Graves County, near the community of Wingo. Other high-profile road closures included U.S. Highways 51, 62, and 45 at various locations in Ballard, McCracken, Graves, and Hickman Counties. Numerous water rescues were conducted for people stranded in homes and vehicles. Dozens of roads were washed out in several counties, including Ballard, Carlisle, Hickman, Fulton, and Graves. Swift water was across many roads, and water even overtopped a few bridges, including U.S. 60 between Paducah and Kevil. Crop damage was expected to run into the millions of dollars. At one farm alone in southern Graves County, crop damage was estimated around 40,000 dollars. The downtown area of Fulton was flooded, including at least one business. Widespread street flooding occurred in Murray, and at least one business was sandbagged. About a dozen businesses were flooded in Ballard County, along with another dozen residences. Widespread rainfall totals ranging from 6 to 12 inches occurred over the westernmost counties (west of Kentucky Lake), including the Paducah, Mayfield, and Murray areas. The majority of this rain fell within a 10-hour window between midnight and 10 AM. The highest confirmed rainfall total was 12.76 inches in Graves County, west of Mayfield near the small community of Fancy Farm. The Kentucky mesonet site six miles southwest of Mayfield received 11.28 of rain in a 24-hour period. Preliminary data indicates this broke the previous Kentucky state record for 24-hour rainfall. The old record was 10.48 in Louisville, KY back on March 1, 1997.

In addition to all the flooding, there were several reports of trees blown down across roads. A couple of large hail reports were also received.

The historic rainfall event was caused by a persistent thunderstorm complex that continually regenerated as it moved southeast across the region during the early morning hours of the 19th. This complex of thunderstorms was indirectly caused by the complex of severe thunderstorms during the midday hours of the 18th. The complex on the 18th left an outflow boundary from south central Missouri into northeast Arkansas. This boundary lifted back northeast into southeast Missouri during the overnight and early morning hours of July 19th. At the same time, a southwest low-level jet ramped up over the top of the surface boundary. Extremely high moisture levels were present, with precipitable water values up to 2.3 inches. The position of the boundary oriented parallel with the upper-level wind flow provided an ideal setup for training convection over the same areas. The initial storms blew up by 11 PM and continued to channel southeastward across the same areas through the following morning.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.9107, -88.8084)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1102154. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.