Flood — Mingo, West Virginia

2025-02-15 to 2025-02-17 · near Williamson, Mingo, West Virginia

Event narrative

The Tug Fork River at Williamson exceeded its flood stage of 27 feet the night of February 15, then continued to rise to a crest just under 48.4 feet the next afternoon. The river slowly receded and eventually fell back below flood stage the morning of the 17th. Around 1 am on the 16th, the City of Williamson notified the public that the flood gates would be shut. Outside of the flood walls, major flooding impacted the 2nd Avenue and Harvey Street Bridges, sections of Highway 292, several roads, and many homes and businesses in the Williamson and South Williamson areas.

Wider weather episode

Light precipitation started to arrive on the evening of February 14th due to an approaching low pressure system, with more substantial rain spreading across the area overnight into the 15th as a warm front approached from the south. This promoted a brief instance of thunderstorms on the morning of February 15th, with damaging winds knocking down trees and power lines to parts of the state. While shower coverage diminished from southeast Ohio and northwest West Virginia during the afternoon, moderate to heavy rain continued to trail across northeast Kentucky, southern West Virginia, and southwest Virginia. This precipitation band lifted north with a front during the night, then the passing low pushed additional showers through with a cold front on the 16th. Rain turned to snow as cold air moved in behind the front, then light snow showers lingered into the 17th.

Three to five inches of rain fell across portions of southeast West Virginia. Two to three inches fell in southwest West Virginia. North of I-64, amounts ranged from one to two inches.

Widespread flooding led to many road closures across West Virginia. However, the worst impacts occurred in southeastern West Virginia where several communities experienced considerable to catastrophic damage. A flash flood emergency was issued for the community of Welch in McDowell County, WV, where flooding invaded multiple homes and businesses, stranded vehicles, and made roads impassable. A vehicle entered the floodwaters and was subsequently swept into the Tug Fork River, with only two of the five occupants surviving.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.6866, -82.2902)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1239952. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.