Flash Flood — Crockett, Tennessee

2010-05-01 · near Elizabeth, Crockett, Tennessee

Event narrative

Very heavy rain up to 20 inches produced devastating flooding across Crockett County. As many as 25 roads and bridges were flooded or washed out. At the peak of the flooding, most of the county roads were closed. Some rescues occurred from the flood waters. In total, 49 houses sustained some kind of flood damage. Of those, thirteen were completely destroyed. Three businesses were damaged as well. A few apartment complexes, farm buildings and other structures were affected by the flood waters. The flash flood event transitioned into a flood event by late in the afternoon as heavy rain allowed rivers to rapidly rise and overflow their banks.

Wider weather episode

An upper level disturbance slowly approached the Mid-South during the evening of April 30th, 2010 as a cold front became stationary to the west. This pattern remained in place through the evening hours of May 2nd, 2010. South to southwest winds pumped warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and created a very unstable atmosphere. Showers and thunderstorms developed in association with the front during the early evening hours and moved east into Eastern Arkansas shortly before midnight. Additional thunderstorms occurred in association with the upper level disturbance. Due to the unstable atmosphere, thunderstorms quickly became severe producing large hail, damaging winds, and flash flooding. The severe weather evolved into an outbreak by May 1st and 2nd. Historic rainfall and flash flooding in addition to large hail and damaging winds occurred during the early morning hours of May 1st with several tornadoes occurring during the afternoon hours of May 1st to early morning hours of May 2nd.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.9700, -89.1800)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 229435. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.