Flood — Ashe, North Carolina

2023-08-28 · near Raven, Ashe, North Carolina

Event narrative

The Ashe County 911 Center reported that runoff from heavy rainfall was flowing into the basement of a private residence along Laurel Knob Road in the community of Todd.

Wider weather episode

High pressure was established over New England, which extended southward across the lower Mid-Atlantic in a wedging pattern, with east windflow observed across Virginia and northern North Carolina. Meanwhile, a cold front was also observed stretching from western Pennsylvania through eastern Tennessee, making slow eastward progress. The easterly windflow was tapping a pool of deep atmospheric moisture over the eastern halves of North Carolina and Virginia, where precipitable water values ranged between 1.7 and 1.8 inches, while afternoon surface-based CAPE values ranged between 1,500 and 2,000 J/Kg across Ashe County. With a SFC-8km mean wind of less then 10 knots, storms across northwest North Carolina were slow-moving, with motion driven by local effects. The combination of deep instability driven strong afternoon heating, high atmospheric moisture and slow storm motion resulted in a strong thunderstorm that produced 4 to locally 6 inches of rainfall in southern Ashe County during a 2-3 hour period, with rainfall rates of 5 inches per hour at times.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.3266, -81.5739)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1129256. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.