Flash Flood — Wilson, Kansas

2024-04-27 to 2024-04-28 · near Neodesha, Wilson, Kansas

Event narrative

Heavy rain from training thunderstorms produced a range from 3.27 to 8.9 inches of reported rainfall which led to continued flooding with rises along rivers, creeks and streams. Street flooding was reported in Neodesha with water up to the hoods of cars during the evening of the 27th. Water was flowing over United States Highway 400 between Fredonia and Neodesha which led to the road being closed for two to three hours from the amount of rainfall over a short period of time. Two homes in Neodesha were inundated with water.

Wider weather episode

On Saturday April 27th, there was volatile severe weather across Kansas and Oklahoma. An abundance of moisture and increasing shear through the day resulted in numerous rotating storms which produced several tornadoes across the Flint Hills into southeast Kansas. The strongest tornado was an EF-2 which occurred in Cowley County which did damage to a few outbuildings. Luckily there were no injuries or fatalities reported with these storms. There are 12 confirmed tornadoes from this event with most of them being EF-U or EF-0. These storms did produce hail ranging from quarter to golf ball size and some damaging wind gusts.

Flooding eventually became a major issue as storms trained across southeast Kansas for several hours into the wee hours of the 28th. Between April 25th and April 28th, many locations across southeast Kansas picked up between 7 and 10 inches of rainfall which sent the Neosho, Verdigris and Fall rivers into flood. Five forecast points rose to moderate flood stage. There was damage to several county roads from the flooding with complete washouts, and part of a railroad track in Wilson County was taken out from water eroding the embankment.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.3963, -95.7372)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1176605. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.