Flash Flood — Tazewell, Virginia

2025-07-16 to 2025-07-17 · near Red Ash, Tazewell, Virginia

Event narrative

Slow-moving thunderstorms produced a radar-estimated 4 to 4.25 inches of rain within a 2-hour period in the vicinity of the Towns of Richlands and Cedar Bluff, with most of the rain falling in around 90 minutes. Such a rainfall would be a 200-year ARI at the 2-hour duration per NOAA Atlas 14 Point Precipitation Frequency estimates. Rainfall rates estimated by radar reached a maximum of around 5.5 inches per hour. FLASH 3-hour ARI reached a maximum of a 200-year event by 10:40 pm EDT, while the 3-hour FLASH QPE/FFG Ratio rose as high as 245. Runoff from the rainfall caused several roads to be flooded and impassible until the flood waters receded within the area. This included Franklin Avenue and Business Route 460 in Richlands. No known damage resulted from this flooding.

Wider weather episode

A hot and humid air mass combined with orographical lift to produce a severe thunderstorm in Bath County of southwest Virginia. Damaging wind gusts from this storm blew down two trees west of Nimrod Hall.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.1108, -81.8694)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1293491. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.