Flash Flood — Martinsville (c), Virginia

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

$10K

Property damage

Event narrative

An short-duration but high-intensity thunderstorm passed across the City of Martinsville, bringing 2 to 2.5 inches of rain in less than an hour. The intensity of rainfall overwhelmed storm drains, causing water to back up onto several city streets. Multiple roads became flooded and impassible by several inches of flowing water, and remained closed until the water drained away, with no damage to the roadways reported. About 6 inches of water was observed flowing across the intersection of Memorial Boulevard and Bridge Street. At least one road was flooded near Southside Park, with multiple vehicles becoming stranded in the floodwaters while attempting to drive through it. The damage estimate is the damage caused to vehicles becoming stranded in the flood waters.

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 → (36.7352, -79.9367)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1218885. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.