Flash Flood — Hardin, Kentucky

2025-02-16 · near Gaithers, Hardin, Kentucky

Event narrative

Flash flooding reported along Sportsman Lake Road.

Wider weather episode

A strong storm system moved across the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys on February 15th and 16th, 2025, bringing heavy rainfall and flooding, severe weather, and winter weather to central Kentucky. The large scale upper level pattern featured deep troughing ejecting across the central CONUS, with broad southwesterly flow occurring in the low and mid troposphere. Southerly flow helped to draw rich moisture up from the Gulf of America, with unseasonably high precipitable water for the middle of February, generally between 1.1 and 1.3 inches, overspreading the Tennessee and Kentucky. A nearly stationary surface front extending from west to east across the lower Ohio Valley provided a source for lift as warm and humid air ascended over a cool near surface layer. Light to moderate rain developed across the region early on the morning of the 15th, with rainfall getting heavier across south central Kentucky by around daybreak. This resulted in instances of flash flooding occurring across south central Kentucky during the mid-to-late morning hours. As the main surface low pressure system approached from the southwest during the afternoon on the 15th, the quasi-stationary surface front lifted into north central Kentucky, bringing a brief reprieve from rain across southern Kentucky while rainfall increased across northern Kentucky. As a broken line of storms developed ahead of an approaching cold front, temperatures and dewpoint temperatures increased considerably across southern Kentucky. This allowed for enough instability for a few strong to severe storms to develop near the Tennessee border. One portion of the line of storms produced a brief tornado over Simpson County, while other reports of wind damage and hail were received from Warren, Logan, and Monroe County. Still, heavy rainfall was the predominant impact from this system, as numerous instances of flooding and flash flooding were observed across Kentucky, and river flooding would occur over the following week. February 17th, one person drove into flood water and drown in Ohio County. Precipitation ended as a band of light to moderate snow on the morning of the 16th, producing accumulations of 1 to 3 inches before ending.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.6344, -85.8513)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1238000. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.