Flash Flood — Tazewell, Virginia

2024-08-31 · near Richlands, Tazewell, Virginia

Event narrative

Multiple roads within the Town of Richlands, including Highway 460, were flooded with several inches of flowing water when an intense but brief line of thunderstorms passed across the community, producing 1.25 to 1.5 inches of rainfall within a few minutes time. Shortly after two hours had passed, most roads were open to traffic, though at least one still had standing water covering it.

Wider weather episode

Showers and thunderstorms developed over the region within a warm and moist airmass on the east side of a cold front. A few of these thunderstorms increased to severe levels and produced damaging wind gusts with trees being blown down. One line of storms developed across the northern half of Tazewell County, producing downpours at rates of three to locally five inches per hour. Crest Unit Streamflow north of the Town of Tazewell was indicating returns of between 600 and 750 cfs per mi^2, with three-hour average recurrence intervals of between 75 an 130 years.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.1000, -81.8000)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1214491. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.