Flash Flood in Barbour County, West Virginia

Flooding was observed on Mount Liberty Road and Union Road.

At the start of the month, a stationary front hovered over Ohio and Pennsylvania on the 5th and 6th of June. The front briefly resumed a southeast march into West Virginia on the 7th before stalling across the area once again. An upper level disturbance finally pushed the front to the north and then sent a cold front through the middle Ohio Valley and central Appalachians on the 8th.

In the midst of the front hovering nearby, several rounds of very heavy rain within thunderstorms deposited two to four inches of rain in some locations of West Virginia. One rainfall report from this event noted over an inch of rain had fallen in less than thirty minutes. This excessive rainfall led to flooding of numerous roads and low lying areas across Barbour, Kanawha, Raleigh, and Upshur Counties. Additionally, high water also began to approach some structures in Barbour and Upshur Counties.

During this stretch of unsettled weather, the afternoon of June 9th proved to be active in the form of damaging wind gusts from strong thunderstorms. With the combination of the nearby front and strong daytime heating, storms grew in earnest during the early afternoon hours on the 9th and promoted downed trees and power lines as activity swept through portions of the Kanawha Valley. Storms pressed out of the area that evening as the front drifted southward.