Flash Flood — Christian, Kentucky

2023-08-27 · near Herndon, Christian, Kentucky

Event narrative

Numerous roads were flooded throughout the county. Water was over a number of state roads, including Kentucky Routes 1453, 115, 1026, 1663, 1386, 164, and 272. A vehicle carrying five occupants (4 juveniles and an adult female) went into chest high water near the intersection of Buffalo Rd and Gracey Sinking Fork Rd. A rescue operation was performed, removing all of the occupants from the vehicle. The 68-year-old female driver was found to have died as a result of drowning.

Wider weather episode

A small thunderstorm complex over the Pennyrile region of western Kentucky slowed down and intensified during the morning. A very well-defined and slow-moving mesoscale convective vortex over southeast Missouri drifted off to the southeast through the morning hours, tracking into western Kentucky by midday. This system interacted with a very moist and modestly unstable air mass, resulting in heavy rainfall and isolated flash flooding. Precipitable water values remained very high, with values of 2.0 to 2.25 inches characteristic of a deeply tropical air mass. One person drowned as a result of floodwaters in west-central Christian County.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.7300, -87.5700)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1126968. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.