Flash Flood — Douglas, Missouri

2019-04-30 · near Sweden, Douglas, Missouri

Event narrative

Heavy rainfall across portions of Douglas County caused Hunter Creek to rise quickly out of its banks during the late evening of April 30th and continued into May 1st. Nearly 7.00 inches of rain fall across portions of the Hunter Creek basin. A 59 year old male was camping in the Vera Cruz Conservation Area and was overtaken by flood waters during the night.

Wider weather episode

Very moist and unstable conditions developed over the Missouri Ozarks ahead of an intense low pressure system over the southern Plains. Widespread severe storms developed over Oklahoma and eastern Kansas during the early morning hours and tracked eastward into the Springfield county warning area during the afternoon and evening. Very heavy rainfall, hail to tennis ball size, damaging winds in excess of 70 mph and 27 tornadoes occurred with this system as storms tracked repeatedly over the region. Four injuries were reported as a result of severe storms. One injury was near Mountain Grove and three were in southeastern Greene County were an EF-2 Tornado tracked. The resulting rainfall led to widespread flash flooding, which continued into the morning of May 1st, on head water streams and low water crossings. One live was lost when a camper along Hunter Creek in Douglas County drowned as the campground flooded.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.9200, -92.5000)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 817782. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.