Flash Flood — Roanoke (c), Virginia

2018-05-17 to 2018-05-18 · near Leslie, Roanoke (c), Virginia

Event narrative

At least six roads were flooded and closed due to flash flooding in Roanoke City. Among the roads closed was Edgewood St. along Mudlick Creek, north of Brandon Road. The Peters Creek Road off-ramp from Route 581 was also closed. An automated rain gauge in the Garden City area of Roanoke had about 3.5 inches of rain in 6 hours.

Wider weather episode

A weak frontal boundary located near the I-64 corridor provided the focus for repeated thunderstorm activity through the evening across several counties. A broad area of low pressure over the southeastern U.S. pulled very high moisture into the region allowing the slow-moving storms to be efficient rainfall producers. Rainfall amount were generally 2 to 4 inches, with isolated higher totals indicated by radar in the heavier cores occurring over a several hour period.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.2473, -79.9111)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 749127. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.