Flood — Athens, Ohio

2025-05-03 to 2025-05-04 · near Palos, Athens, Ohio

Event narrative

Sunday Creek at Glouster exceeded a bankfull level of 13 feet on the evening of May 3rd. The creek continued to rise to a crest of 15.3 feet the next morning, then gradually receded back into its banks the night of the 4th. In Glouster, the Trimble High School parking lot, Gloucester Memorial Park, South Town Street, Kennedy Road, and West Main Street flooded during this time. In Trimble, Center Street at Kroger, Route 13 near Congress Street, and portions of Oakdale Road flooded. Palmer Street also flooded in Jacksonville.

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 → (39.5233, -82.0561)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1255134. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.