Flash Flood — Fairfield, Connecticut

2024-08-18 · near Darien, Fairfield, Connecticut

Event narrative

Video showing running water from the Goodwives river out of its banks in the Old Kings market shopping center and along Old Kings highway in Darien. Road closure at Old Kings highway N and Sedgewick Ave.

Wider weather episode

A frontal system over the area on August 18th allowed for the development of rain early in the morning. As the day progressed, mesoscale features including multiple boundary interactions and a mesolow allowed thunderstorms to continue to intensify with persistent back-building and training over the same areas in southern Connecticut. These thunderstorms produced anywhere from 3-4.5 inch per hour rainfall rates resulting in several considerable Flash Flood Warnings and a Flash Flood Emergency being issued. Numerous rescues, road and bridge washouts, and several mudslides resulted in widespread damage. Several large-stem rivers including the Naugatuck, Pomperaug, Housatonic, and Still Rivers all reached major flood stage at some point during the day as a result of a widespread 5-8 inches of rainfall with localized amounts of up to 12-13 inches. Unfortunately, 3 people lost their lives in Connecticut as a result of the flash flooding.

Preliminary damage assessment costs for Fairfield County is $5.8 million and New Haven County is $4 million. This is not a final number.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.0799, -73.4794)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1213874. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.