Flash Flood — Merced, California

1998-03-25 · near Merced, Merced, California

Event narrative

Over 65 homes and 19 apartments were flooded in and around Merced City as the result of torrential/record-setting rainfall in the previous 18 hours.

Wider weather episode

Locally heavy rain from a band of thunderstorms that became quasi-stationary in the previous 12-18 hours brought flooding again to the Merced City and some outlying Merced County areas. Thunderstorms developed mid-day Tuesday the 24th and locally heavy rain continued for much of that afternoon and early evening hours. Rainfall totals for 24 hours ending by the morning of the 25th showed unofficial reports from 3.5" to 5.9" in the Merced City area. One gauge in the north part of town showed 6.8" in the 48-hour period from the evening of the 23rd to the evening of the 25th. The official gauge at the airport for the 24th as a calendar day was 3.25"! Although skies cleared during the night of the 24th/morning of the 25th, runoff water did not reach creeks until the early morning hours of the 25th with a subsequent crest on Bear Creek after dawn on the 25th. Over 1000 people were evacuated from Merced City and nearby County areas. Bear Creek crested at 19.3 feet / 7653 CFS at 0900 PST 3/25/98...Black Rascal Creek was contributed 4449CFS(148% capacity) early on 3/25 to Bear Creek's total. Damage figures for the 24th/25th assessed at $9.6M due to flooding with agricultural amounts of $1.5M being tentative (likely to go higher with time). This event in Merced County was the 2nd one-in-100 event in two months. Dry Creek, a tributary of the Merced River near Snelling, reached 5358CFS at a height of 15.4' at 1800PST on 3/24/98 as a result of the heavy rains in the area and indicative of the type of stream flows from the foothills of the S.Sierra Nevada onto the valley floor.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5637609. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.