Flash Flood — Ohio, West Virginia

2025-06-14 · near Wheeling, Ohio, West Virginia

Event narrative

Both the public and trained spotters reported flooding on National Road in Woodsdale.

Wider weather episode

On the evening of June 14th, a slow moving thunderstorm passed over portions of Ohio County just east of the city of Wheeling. It's slow movement and interaction with another storm allowed for very heavy rainfall in a short period of time. In addition, precipitable water values were very high - in the 90th percentile. A local IFLOWS gage near Valley Grove recorded over 3 inches in an hour. This resulted in catastrophic flash flooding in Little Wheeling Creek and its tributaries. This impacted the towns of Valley Grove, Triadelphia, Elm Grove, and Woodsdale. Nine people were killed, at least 70 cars were pulled out of the creeks, 37 properties were completely destroyed, and another 700 properties had damage ranging from minimal to major. Damage estimates for road damage were 3.5 million. A presidential disaster declaration was issued in late July.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (40.0793, -80.6884)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1277746. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.