Flood — Athens, Ohio

2025-05-03 to 2025-05-05 · near Oakdale, Athens, Ohio

Event narrative

Flooding was observed on roads in the Glouster, Trimble, and Jacksonville areas. State Route 685 was closed due to flooding between Route 78 and Martin Road. On the afternoon of May 4th, an SUV became stuck in floodwaters just before the Glen Ebon Road bridge, with water reaching the top of the tires.

Wider weather episode

A swath of precipitation spread into southeast Ohio during the morning of May 3rd, then rounds of showers and thunderstorms continued to blossom as a front crept east into the area during the day. A boundary remained in the vicinity for the next several days, then began to slide northeast while a disturbance pivoted overhead. Precipitation diminished in coverage overnight and during the early morning hours, then redeveloped each afternoon and evening. Rainfall from the previous couple of days had already helped to prime soils for flooding, only to be exacerbated by an additional 1 to 3 inches of rain deposited over portions of southeast Ohio between the 3rd and 5th. In Athens and Vinton Counties, a few roads were impacted by flooding and some smaller creeks exceeded their banks.

In addition to the heavy downpours associated with this stalled frontal boundary, daily afternoon thunderstorm activity resulted in a few instances of large hail and damaging wind gusts around southeast Ohio. These occurred primarily during peak heating hours before weakening in intensity after sunset.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.5122, -82.0978)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1251964. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.