Heavy Rain — Martinsville (c), Virginia

2024-09-24 · near Martinsville, Martinsville (c), Virginia

Event narrative

A personal weather station (Weather Underground: KVAMARTI28) recorded a 45-minute rainfall amount, ending at 6 pm EDT on the 24th, of 2.23 inches. Extrapolating between a 30-minute event and a 60-minute event, this 1-hour total is about a 50-year Average Recurrence Interval event per NOAA Atlas 14 Point Precipitation Frequency estimates.

Wider weather episode

A warm front was situated across central Virginia and North Carolina, while a stationary front was positioned across Kentucky and West Virginia, which kept a highly moist airmass over the region. Lift across the warm front and increasing instability via diurnal heating through the day resulted in an increase in coverage and intensity of storms. Some of the storms were severe producing damaging winds and large hail. One intense thunderstorm passed across the City of Martinsville, VA, with the heaviest rain falling between 5 pm and 6 pm EDT, occurring at rates of 4 to locally as high as 6 inches per hour. Two to 2 and a half inches of rain fell across the city, with one local weather station observed a total of 2.25 inches occurring during a 45-minute period. MRMS Crest Unit Stream flow in the City of Martinsville was observed to be 1,540 cfs/mi^2 at 6 pm EDT, with any values above 1,000 cfs/mi^2 being very strong indicators for the potential of flash flooding.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.6870, -79.8580)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1218884. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.