Flooding hits Tennessee, Carolinas, SW Virginia
UPDATE 4/25/17 8 PM: A terrible situation in eastern North Carolina as rivers crest over MAJOR flood stage and not far from records set during Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Fran in 1996. From the NOAA AHPS website: Crabtree Creek at Old Wake Forest Road is on its way down after cresting at 19.45 feet. The Neuse River near Clayton on its way to a near-record crest of 19.6 feet (see below). The only time it's been higher since 1945 was during the previously-mentioned hurricane events. the Neuse River at Smithfield also over major flood stage.
Here's a new 3-day rainfall totals map:
I created this satellite animation from the new GOES-16 data.* You can see the storms blow up NE of Raleigh and crawl west all day.
"NOAA's GOES-16 satellite has not been declared operational and its data are preliminary and undergoing testing.
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UPDATE 4/25/17 8 AM: The W Kerr Scott Reservoir is nearing 45 feet this morning and should break the 4-year record later today. Flooding problems have now moved east to Raleigh, another of my old stomping grounds, where over 3 inches of rain fell overnight and over 6 inches since Monday. This map from early this morning shows some of the rainfall amounts and flooding reports.
UPDATE 7:30 PM: The W Kerr Scott Reservoir has now risen to nearly 45 feet (from just over 30 Saturday!). If it hits 45 feet, which it looks like is possible based on the curve of the increase (dotted line my annotation), this will be the highest since July 2013 when it hit 52 feet.
Heavy rainfall from a low pressure system over the Southeast brought flooding over the weekend and overnight, from Tennessee to southwestern Virginia, including Charleston, South Carolina, and Wilkes County, North Carolina, where I grew up. This image shows the flood spotter reports and 72-hour rainfall:
One of the areas hard hit last night was the county where I lived for 11 years -- Wilkes County, NC. This photo & video show a truck belonging to a man who was hospitalized after being rescued.
Truck in river at Arbor Grove Church Road in Wilkes County. Photo by Michelle Dimmette.
The Yadkin River at Elkin, North Carolina, jumped from 5 to nearly 20 feet overnight, reaching Minor and nearly Moderate Flood Stage, while the same river in Wilkesboro also rose 10 feet but stayed below flood stage; even the local W Kerr Scott Reservoir has risen over 11 feet since Saturday!
A man was rescued and hospitalized after severe flooding in Wilkes County, North Carolina.
This map shows the last week of rainfall (almost all fell last night) in northwestern North Carolina and southwestern Virginia. According to this estimate, up to 6.45" of rain fell in Wilkes County.
Another area that was hard hit was Charleston, South Carolina, with multiple reports of flooding, including water in "The Market" that was several feet high!
In southwestern Virginia, perhaps the most impressive small river rise was at the New River at Radford, which rose 10 feet between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. today!
The big rivers in Virginia will continue to rise this week -- several are headed near Moderate Flood Stage, and including the New River at Glen Lyn, the New River at Radford, the Dan River at Danville, the Dan River at Paces, and the Dan River at South Boston.
The 72-hour estimated precip map at the top of this blog actually looks remarkable similar to what the models predicted four days ago, which is pretty good for a forecast that far out (from the GFS model; the Euro was further north). This speaks well for meteorology -- weather services could have easily warned people in that area of the risk four days out.
For the record, this is a list of storm spotter reports of flooding in northwestern North Carolina overnight and this morning:
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SURRY COUNTY 911 REPORTS THAT RADAR ROAD NEAR INTERSECTION OF ARARAT ROAD NEAR ARARAT IS COMPLETELY UNDERWATER AND WILL BE CLOSED.
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SURRY COUNTY 911 REPORTS THE INTERSECTION OF MEMORIAL PARK DRIVE AND JAMES STREET IS UNDER WATER AND CLOSED.
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WILKES COUNTY 911 CENTER REPORTS THAT A BRIDGE IS UNDER WATER AT INTERSECTION OF TUMBLING SHOALS ROAD AND NORTH OLD NORTH CAROLINA HIGHWAY 16.
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WILKES COUNTY 911 CENTER REPORTED THAT A BRIDGE IS UNDER WATER AT THE INTERSECTION OF ARBOR GROVE BAPTIST CHURCH ROAD AND COTTON MILL ROAD AT THE ROARING RIVER.
COUNTY 911 CALL CENTER REPORTS THAT 3 INCHES OF WATER COVERED THE 9500 BLOCK OF STATESVILLE ROAD NEAR HUNTING CREEK NEAR NORTH WILKESBORO. -
WATER COVERING NEBO ROAD IN BOONEVILLE.
