Flash Flood — Chelan, Washington

2019-08-10 · near South Wenatchee, Chelan, Washington

Event narrative

Heavy rain from a thunderstorm eroded a culvert and hillside above the Squilchuck Mobile Home Park resulting in three mobile homes being buried up to their roof lines with mud and rocks. Residents in 16 other nearby homes were advised to evacuate until the hillside stabilized.

Wider weather episode

The weather pattern on August 10th featured a very moist and unstable air mass with a passing upper level low pressure. These elements promoted widespread thunderstorms with heavy rain which produced Flash Flooding over potions of eastern Washington. Local observations indicated some of these slow moving storms produced from 1 to locally in excess of 5 inches of rain. Particularly hard hit was the Wenatchee area where flash flooding was reported in gulches and canyons emptying into the city. These floods produced severe damage to at least three mobile homes in Wenatchee.

Elsewhere heavy rains flooded sections of Highway 2 on the Waterville Plateau and the area around Elk and Chatteroy north of Spokane received up to 5 inches of rain from a stationary thunderstorm which produced scattered flooding of streets and driveways, water in basements and washouts on hillsides. There were also isolated reports of hail with diameters of up to 1 inch with some of these storms.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (47.3905, -120.3041)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 852979. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.