Flash Flood — Transylvania, North Carolina

2021-08-17 to 2021-08-18 · near Balsam Grove, Transylvania, North Carolina

$4.0M

Property damage

Event narrative

Stream gauges indicated significant flash flooding developed for the second day in a row near the upper reaches of the French Broad River after 3 to 6 inches of rain fell in the headwaters in just a few hours. This was on top of the 6-12 inches that fell durimg the morning of the 16th. Flooding was slightly worse in the Rosman and Balsam Grove area than what was observed on the 16th, with the stream gauge at Rosman reaching its second highest level on record (4 October 1964). Multiple structures along the river were once again inundated, including on Depot St, Highway 178, Main St, and Chestnut St in Rosman. Flash flooding again developed along the Davidson River in the Pisgah Forest area, overflowing portions of Davidson River Rd and Deavor Rd and inundating several businesses near the intersection of Highways 64 and 276.

Wider weather episode

Tropical Storm Fred made landfall in the Florida Panhandle on the 16th and lifted steadily north through Georgia and into the southern Appalachians during the 16th and throughout the 17th. Tropical moisture and strong southeast upslope flow into the Blue Ridge mountains resulted in widespread showers and some thunderstorms producing extremely heavy rainfall rates. By the time the rain tapered off by the end of the 17th, 24-hour rainfall amounts of 5-12 inches were reported across portions of the mountains and foothills. This was in addition to a small area of 5-10 inch amounts that fell across portions of the southern North Carolina mountains during the morning of the 16th. The result of this rainfall was significant to catastrophic flash flooding across portions of the French Broad and Pigeon River basins, including some of the worst flooding to impact these areas in almost 20 years. The most severe flooding occurred in portions of southern and central Haywood County, where a number of fatalities and hundreds of millions of dollars and damage occurred. In addition, a brief tornado touched down in Iredell County and tracked into Alexander County.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.2310, -82.8950)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 982264. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.