Flood — Danville (c), Virginia

2019-02-23 to 2019-02-24 · near Danville, Danville (c), Virginia

Event narrative

Water was reported over Robertson Bridge near Memorial Drive by the public and relayed by local media. The Dan River at Danville crested at 23.3 feet late on the 23rd, well above the Minor flood stage of 17 feet and above the Moderate flood stage of 20.5 feet.

Wider weather episode

From February 20th to 24th, multiple rounds of precipitation passed across the region, resulting in liquid accumulations ranging from around 2 to 4 inches with isolated 5-inch amounts over a four-day period. The storm started out on the 20th as a combination of snow, sleet and freezing rain across the mountains and foothills with liquid equivalents of 0.50 up to 2 inches. The next storm arrived early late on February 21st, with warmer air arriving with the system allowing the precipitation to fall mainly as rain, which helped to quickly melt the frozen precipitation which fell during the 24-36 hours prior. With soils already saturated from previous precipitation, runoff from this storm caused several rivers to rise into minor flood, including points along the Dan, Roanoke, New and James Rivers. Flood frequency return intervals on most of the gaged streams and rivers in this event was roughly in the 2- to 5-year recurrence interval or 0.50 to 0.20 annual chance flood. Several rock and mudslides were also reported.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.5800, -79.4300)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 808996. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.