3,183 first-hand accounts of flood events in Kentucky, ranked by impact. Each is a NOAA-written narrative of the moment.
Steady rain began near dawn on the 10th. By late afternoon, rain amounts over an inch were becoming common in northeast Kentucky. Several small streams were still running well above normal before the rain even began.
Read the full account →Steady rain began near dawn on the 10th. By late afternoon, rain amounts over an inch were becoming common in northeast Kentucky. Several small streams were still running well above normal before the rain even began.
Read the full account →Steady rain began near dawn on the 10th. By late afternoon, rain amounts over an inch were becoming common in northeast Kentucky. Several small streams were still running well above normal before the rain even began.
Read the full account →Thunderstorms during the early morning hours produced 3 to 5 inches of rain, which saturated the ground. Another round of storms arrived during the late afternoon, producing another inch or two of rain in an hour.
Read the full account →A slow-moving band of thunderstorms with torrential downpours affected most of the Pennyrile region of West Kentucky. Storms earlier in the day had already saturated the ground, and this additional rain brought rainfall totals up to 5.66 inches at Princeton, 4.94 inches at…
Read the full account →4 to 9 inches of rain fell in less than 24 hours causing widespread flooding and/or flash flooding resulting in numerous water covered and closed roads, evacuations and rescues. Most of these counties were declared disaster areas and given federal assistance.
Read the full account →Record to near record rainfall from early March 1 through March 2 caused the highest flooding on the Kentucky River at Frankfort since 1937 with the river cresting at 45.2 feet at 1 pm est March 3 (flood stage is 31 feet).
Read the full account →The remnants of Hurricane Ivan dumped 3.5 to 5.5 inches of rain, during a 30 hour period from late morning on Thursday the 16th, into the late afternoon of Friday the 17th. The heaviest rain was during the morning hours of the 18th.
Read the full account →The remnants of Hurricane Ivan dumped 3.5 to 5.5 inches of rain, during a 30 hour period from late morning on Thursday the 16th, into the late afternoon of Friday the 17th. The heaviest rain was during the morning hours of the 18th.
Read the full account →A slow-moving cold front passed across the region between the 20th and 22nd. Several upper level disturbances moved north-northeast along the front, touching off numerous showers and thunderstorms.
Read the full account →Along and north of a slow-moving warm front over western Tennessee, clusters of moderate to heavy rain occurred. These clusters moved eastward across southern Kentucky, where the ground was saturated.
Read the full account →A round of thunderstorms developed during the mid to late afternoon hours on the 7th, resulting in flash flooding across segments of Knox and Bell Counties. Near Kayjay and Wheeler in Knox County, flowing water inundated roads and entered residences.
Read the full account →Rainfall of up to 3 inches in less than 6 hours resulted in flash flooding over parts of Magoffin County. Some of the worst flooding occurred in the Rockhouse, Burning Fork, Dry Bread, Gun Creek, and Royalton sections of the county.
Read the full account →A slow-moving area of strong thunderstorms with torrential rainfall produced up to three inches of rain in a few hours. These storms occurred over locations that received 3 to 4 inches of rain in the past 36 hours.
Read the full account →Widespread heavy rainfall fell across the region from February 14th through February 16th. This resulted in moderate to major flooding across the Kentucky, Cumberland, Big Sandy, and Licking River Basins. River crests at many locations were the highest since May, 1984.
Read the full account →Record to near record rainfall from early March 1 through March 2 caused the highest flooding on the Kentucky River at Frankfort since 1937 with the river cresting at 45.2 feet at 1 pm est March 3 (flood stage is 31 feet).
Read the full account →The widespread river flooding that began late in December continued into early January. Some of the flooding reached major levels along the Ohio River downriver from Paducah, but elsewhere the river flooding was minor to moderate.
Read the full account →The atmosphere over central Kentucky had high CAPE values in the 3,000-4,000 J/kg range with weak shear and abundant moisture. With diurnal heating, storms formed and produced heavy rainfall rates over isolated areas, causing minor flooding and a thunderstorm that produced wind…
Read the full account →Thunderstorms developed in the mid to late afternoon generally south of the Interstate 64 corridor. With the weak flow aloft, the weaker storms rained themselves out.
Read the full account →A strong temperature gradient existed from southeast to northeast across the mid Ohio Valley on the 4th. An old snow cover over Ohio and extreme northern Kentucky helped to maintain surface temperatures slightly below freezing.||A low pressure storm system moved out of the…
Read the full account →Rain showers began on the 28th. Showers and thunderstorms were common late on the 28th into the morning of the 29th.||Along a nearly stationary front, thunderstorms reformed during the mid afternoon over eastern Kentucky and western West Virginia on the 29th.
Read the full account →Multiple rounds of heavy tropical-like showers began Saturday, October 5th and continued through Sunday morning. This episodic convection developed within an unseasonably moist airmass south and east of a stalled boundary.
Read the full account →Scattered thunderstorms developed during the late evening on August 7th, centered over the Kentucky Bluegrass Region. The slow movement of these storms, coupled with a tropical environment in which precipitable water values exceeded 2 inches, led to several very localized…
Read the full account →On March 12th, two warm fronts moved north through the Ohio Valley carrying warm moist air ahead of cold front that moved through later in the day. As the cold front moved through, it produces heavy rainfall and flooding across central Kentucky.
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