Flash Flood — Decatur, Tennessee

2010-05-01 · near Sugar Tree, Decatur, Tennessee

Event narrative

Very heavy rain up to 20 inches produced widespread flooding in Decatur County. Numerous roads and bridges were flooded or washed out. At least 40 roads and eight bridges were damaged from the flooding. As many as 89 homes sustained damage from the flood waters. Numerous rescues from homes and vehicles stranded in flood waters had to be made. The flash flood event transitioned to a flood event by late in the afternoon as heavy rain allowed rivers to 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 → (35.8300, -88.0500)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 238848. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.