Heavy Rain — Salem (c), Virginia

2020-05-20 · near Salem (c), Salem (c), Virginia

Event narrative

The persistent heavy rains produced a substantial landslide in Salem in the 2400 block of Franklin Street. An eyewitness in a media report described it, 'all of a sudden the land just started moving. The whole point of the mountain started sliding down, trees falling everywhere.' A nearby CoCoRaHS site in Salem (VA-RN-21) measured 10.70 inches in the 4-day period ending 700 AM on May 22.

Wider weather episode

An upper-level low became cut-off over the southern Appalachian region for several days leading to persistent rainfall and eventually some flooding. Four-day (96-hour) rainfall amounts ending at 800 AM EDT on May 22nd ranged from 3 to over 12 inches in the most favored locations. Some of the 11-inch+, 4-day rain totals in Roanoke County were within the 200-year recurrence interval (9.78 to 11.8 inches) per NOAA Atlas 14. The flooding that ensued was almost all in the form of river flooding that took several days to develop. Nearly every major river basin saw some flooding, but the most notable occurred in the New River basin where crests ranged from the 4th to 8th highest on record at the Virginia gaging stations along the river. Stages on the upper New were higher than in October 2018 when the remains of Hurricane Michael transited the region. The incredible rainfall, runoff and numerous debris flows produced widespread damage to roads in the region with VDOT reporting over $5 million in damages.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.2707, -80.0627)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 895052. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.