Flash Flood — Butler, Kansas

2016-08-19 to 2016-08-20 · near Rose Hill, Butler, Kansas

Event narrative

Water was flowing across many area roads. Several swift water rescues were performed. In a couple of cases, the vehicles were swept of off the roadway. Four individuals were in those vehicles and two were found and rescued. One other individual had been swept downstream and appeared to rescuers as he walked out of a soybean field. Unfortunately, one person was not found until later and had perished.

Wider weather episode

A major flash flood event engulfed many locations across south central Kansas. During the evening of August 19th a strong cold front pushed across central and eastern Kansas. Storms developed along this front and tracked off to the southeast during the evening hours. With a very moist atmosphere in place, these storms produced rainfall rates around 2-3 inches per hour. Several rounds of storms affected southern Sedgwick and southern Butler counties which resulted in rainfall in the 5 to 7 inch range with most of it falling in around 2 hours. This lead to significant flash flooding, especially near Mulvane and south of Rose Hill. Numerous water rescues took place with homes also evacuated.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.5721, -97.1507)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 656623. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.