Flash Flood — Perry, Ohio

2025-07-26 · near Ziontown, Perry, Ohio

Event narrative

High water was observed across State Route 256 near State Route 13.

Wider weather episode

After a brief stint of drier weather, showers and thunderstorms returned to the area for the end of July as moisture increased ahead of a cold front.

Beginning on July 25th, most of the activity that developed was confined to portions of southeast Ohio during the day, followed by a lull in precipitation overnight. Scattered showers and storms then sprouted up across the area once again on the 26th, with some of these storms prevailing past sunset. The next day began with more scattered showers and storms initially before a more robust line of thunderstorms developed along an outflow boundary during the afternoon and evening. After an overnight reprieve, scattered activity redeveloped across southern West Virginia, northeast Kentucky, and southwest Virginia on the 28th. That evening, a line of thunderstorms traversed southeast Ohio and then began to fall apart after pushing east of the Ohio River. Much drier air filtered into the area after that, signaling the end of severe weather and flooding concerns.

During this stretch of more active weather, a few instances of flash flooding took place across southeast Ohio. The first flooding event occurred in Perry County on the 26th in response to heavy downpours, depositing one to three inches of rain across the northern part of the county. This instilled high water issues to sprout as a result. While severe weather was rather benign in southeast Ohio during this timeframe, two reports of downed trees occurred in isolated instances, once on the 27th and the other on 28th.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.8329, -82.3949)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1268501. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.