Heavy Rain — Covington (c), Virginia

2020-06-17 to 2020-06-18 · near Covington, Covington (c), Virginia

Event narrative

The NWS Cooperative station at Covington, VA (CFPV2) set a date rainfall record for June 18th of 2.70 inches for the 24-hour period ending 700 AM EDT on the 18th. The previous date record was 1.49 inches set in 1973. It was also the 5th wettest June day on record, but well behind the record 4.20 inches on June 24, 2016. Nearly unbroken precipitation records exist at this station back to 1961 at this site.

Wider weather episode

A broad closed upper low drifted across South Carolina and northwest back into southwest Virginia and West Virginia bringing persistent rainfall that eventually led to flooding. There were repeated rounds of heavy rainfall with widespread amounts of 2 to 5 inches, with isolated totals over 10 inches in a 3-day period in parts of Halifax County, VA.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.8111, -79.9882)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 899205. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.