Flash Flood — Lauderdale, Tennessee

2010-05-01 · near Oak Grove, Lauderdale, Tennessee

Event narrative

Very heavy rain up to 20 inches produced devastating flooding across Lauderdale County. Twenty homes sustained at least minor damage. Twenty mobile homes and few businesses sustained damage as well. Five roads sustained major damage and fifteen roads received minor damage. 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 → (35.6172, -89.8448)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 237903. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.