Flash Flood — Maury, Tennessee

2015-12-23 · near Mt Joy, Maury, Tennessee

Event narrative

Heavy rainfall resulted in localized flash flooding across central portions of Maury County. One car was found submerged in Carters Creek near Carters Creek Pike and Darks Mill Road intersection north of Columbia, and three teenagers inside the vehicle drowned. Other low lying roads and areas of Columbia and Mount Pleasant were reportedly flooded.

Wider weather episode

An unusually powerful upper level trough moved across the eastern United States on December 23, 2015, spawning widespread severe weather from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes. Several tornadic supercell thunderstorms developed across northern Mississippi and western Tennessee, which then moved rapidly east-northeastward at up to 70 mph across Middle Tennessee during the evening hours on December 23. These storms produced 4 long-track tornadoes that caused 2 deaths and 7 reported injuries. Only 7 tornadoes had been previously recorded across Middle Tennessee in the month of December from the 1800s through 2014, easily making this the largest and worst December tornado outbreak in Middle Tennessee history.

In addition to the tornadoes, several reports of wind damage, large hail, and flash flooding were received. Some of the worst flash flooding occurred in Maury County, where 3 teenagers drowned in a submerged vehicle on Carters Creek Pike.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.5261, -87.2912)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 607161. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.