Flash Flood — Carroll, Tennessee

2010-05-01 · near Yuma, Carroll, Tennessee

Event narrative

Very heavy rain up to 20 inches fell across Carroll County producing widespread flash flooding. Small streams and creeks overflowed their banks. At least 25 roads were flooded or washed out as a result. In total, eleven homes sustained damage from the flooding. Three of those were totally destroyed. Thirty-six businesses also sustained damage with nine being totally destroyed. Several other buildings including apartment complexes, farm buildings, and mobile homes also received damage. One fatality occurred when a vehicle was washed off the roadway as the driver tried to drive through flood waters. Water swept more than 20 used cars off of a car lot in downtown Huntingdon. Railroad tracks across the county sustained damage as well. The flash flooding event transitioned into a flood event as the heavy rain allowed rivers to rise rapidly 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 → (35.8334, -88.3373)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 229590. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.