Flash Flood — Jackson, West Virginia

2024-09-29 · near Fair Plain, Jackson, West Virginia

Event narrative

Route 21 near Fair Plain was flooded for a period of time as a result of Grasslick Run rising out of its banks.

Wider weather episode

The end of September featured a strong Category 4 Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in the Florida Big Bend region on September 26th. After sailing through the Mississippi Valley, Helene quickly deviated its track to the west-northwest as it began to pivot around an increasingly cut off upper level low disturbance positioned over Kentucky, and became post-tropical in the process. This brought forth the start of impacts to West Virginia on the 27th, especially across west-central parts of the state, with strong to damaging wind gusts and locally heavy rainfall.

Wind gusts of 50 to 60 miles per hour were observed frequently across southwest West Virginia, with multiple areas of downed trees and power lines in McDowell, Wayne, and Wood Counties on September 27th. The strongest wind gust observed in the state occurred at the Huntington Airport in Cabell County, recording a gust of 70 miles per hour just after 12:00 that afternoon. There was also an instance of flash flooding in Jackson County, where a local creek rose out of its banks and spilled onto the local road. This was from the locally heavy rainfall that was associated with Helene, which yielded much needed moisture to the state after a summer filled with a historic drought.

Additional rounds of showers continued to impact West Virginia from September 28th to October 1st as the lingering remnants of Helene were absorbed by the stationary upper level disturbance, and would only come to an end with the help of a crossing cold front on October 2nd. However, no additional impacts were caused by Helene after the 29th across West Virginia.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.7217, -81.6720)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1217191. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.