Flash Flood — Saunders, Nebraska

2024-07-02 · near Valparaiso, Saunders, Nebraska

Event narrative

The North Oak Creek at the Valparaiso river gauge (VLPN1) experienced flood stage briefly as a result from flash flooding caused by training thunderstorms. The creek crested at 240 am CST on the 2nd at a height of 22.70 feet.

Wider weather episode

At the beginning of July, river flooding was still ongoing along portions of the Missouri River extending from east-central Nebraska/southwest Iowa to the southern Nebraska border. Most of the length of the river crested at the end of June, so the greatest impacts are addressed in June StormData. However, sections of I-29 and the I-29/I680 junction remained closed through the first week of July as flood waters receded. There were also riverfront properties in far southeast Nebraska that were flooded this first week of July as well.

On the morning of July 1st, a trough positioned over the Rockies ejected out into the central Plains. At the surface, a low pressure developed in the central High Plains in response to this upper level feature, with a quasi-stationary warm front draped from central Nebraska southeast into the lower Mississippi River Valley. Widespread showers and thunderstorms developed along and north of this frontal zone by the evening hours, resulting in widespread heavy rain across much of southeast Nebraska into southwest Iowa. Sporadic severe weather also occurred, primarily focused in Lincoln and surrounding areas. This included an EF-0 in Saline County and an EF-1 just southwest of Lincoln. Training thunderstorms produced flash flooding across much of the I-80 corridor between Lincoln and Omaha. A Flash Flood Emergency was issued for locations around Horseshoe Lake in Cass County due to water rapidly rising and trapping multiple people in their homes.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.0610, -96.8502)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1206656. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.