Heavy Rain — Martinsville (c), Virginia

2023-06-19 · near Martinsville, Martinsville (c), Virginia

Event narrative

A personal weather station (Weather Underground: KVAMARTI21) recorded an 1-hour rainfall amount of 2.55 inches from a passing thunderstorm. This amount equates to a 25-year rainfall event for a 1-hour duration per NOAA Atlas 14 Point Precipitation Frequency estimates.

Wider weather episode

A stacked low over the Ohio Valley pulled a warm front through the Southside Region of Virginia in the afternoon. The upper level support from upper level disturbances rotating around the low allowed storms to develop and grow in intensity as surface-based CAPE (Convective Available Potential Energy) values increased into the 1,000 to 1,500 J/Kg range. There were scattered areas of wind damage from thunderstorm winds. In addition, precipitable water values rising into the 1.5 to 1.7 inch range supported heavy downpours, especially in areas of the Piedmont where storms were observed to be slow-moving and passed repeatedly across the same locations.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.6910, -79.8760)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1114887. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.