Flash Flood — Galax (c), Virginia

2025-08-01 · near Galax, Galax (c), Virginia

Event narrative

Rainfall totals ranging from 3 to 3.25 inches occurred during about a 90-minute period, with rain falling at rates exceeding 4 inches per hour. Runoff from this rain caused flooding on multiple roads in and around the City of Galax. Reports of flooding include heavy runoff from the rain flowing into a nursing and rehab center along Painter Street. Several inches of water were also observed flowing across Oldtown Street, Glendale Road, Bedsaul Road, Parkwood Drive and Webster Street in front of Twin County Tire Company. No damage was reported to the roadways, which were open to traffic once the flooding receded.

Wider weather episode

A slow-moving line of storms passed across the City of Galax and neighboring Grayson County just before 2 pm EDT during the afternoon of August 1st, with multiple cells within the line observed training across the city. The line weakened and exited the area by around 3:30 pm EDT. Rainfall rates were observed to be as high as 4.5 inches per hour in a couple areas of the city, with storm total amounts per multiple personal weather stations observed to be between 3 and 3.25 inches. These amounts are estimated to be around a 75-year event at the 90 minute duration per NOAA Atlas 14 Point Precipitation Frequency estimates. CREST Unit Streamflow reached a maximum of a little over 500 cfs per mi^2, while the FLASH 1-hr QPE/FFG ratio reached as high as 150.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.6695, -80.9492)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1293024. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.