The Western Carolinas were in the crosshairs of another round of heavy rainfall this week. The event was a result of an upper low that developed along the Mississippi River Valley Region, cut off from the main jetstream and sat around for a couple days bringing in copious amounts of Gulf and Atlantic Moisture to the region.
The image below is a 7-Day Precipation map for our region. The rainfall began on late Sunday and early Monday and for the most part was gentle for most. Precip amounts through Wednesday ranged for just a couple tenths of an inch in eastern sections to amounts in the 1-3 inch range along the Blue Ridge Escaprment.
It wasn’t until Thursday morning that the rainfall became excessive for some. As the upper low began to lift north, a stout low level jet formed along the Escarpment. That combined with Precipitable Water Values more commonly associated with summer time than October, it all resulted in some serious flash flooding across McDowell and Rutherford Counties before spilling over into parts of Burke, Caldwell and Catawba Counties by early afternoon Thursday.
Before all was said and done, some locations picked up as month as two month’s worth of rainfall in a five day period while others received more tolerable rainfall amounts.
Five Day Rainfall Totals:
(Data Sources: NWS, Emergency Management Agencies, CoCoRaHS)
Alexander County:
3.4 SSE Taylorsville: 2.47 in
1.2 SW Millersville: 1.69 in
Burke County:
1.4 S Jonas Ridge: 7.47 in
0.7 WSW Glen Alpine: 6.55 in
Burke County Emergency Management (Morganton): 4.84 in
Drexel Fire Dept: 3.84
2.1 E Connelly Springs: 3.28 in
Caldwell County:
Patterson: 4.24 in
2.6 SW Sawmills: 4.20 in
5.7 E Lenoir: 3.49 in
Catawba County:
Hickory Regional Airport: 2.92 in
2.8 NE Conover: 1.54 in
5.7 ENE Maiden: 1.23 in
3.9 SSW Catawba: 0.79 in
1.2 SE Terrell: 0.67 in
3.6 W Maiden: 0.62 in
Cleveland County:
Moss Lake: 1.78 in
Shelby COOP: 1.42 in
6.0 S Mooresboro: 1.27 in
Lawndale: 0.61 in
Lincoln County:
4.2 W Vale: 1.65 in
Lincolnton COOP: 0.72 in
Lowesville: 0.58 in
Iron Station: 0.38 in
McDowell County:
Crooked Creek: 8.80 in
Marion COOP: 7.89 in
0.8 SSW Pleasant Gardens: 7.73 in
Sugar Hill Fire Dept: 7.40 in
Foothills Action Network HQ/McDowell EOC: 7.03 in
0.3 W Woodlawn: 6.51 in
Glenwood Fire Dept: 6.34 in
Nebo: 5.81 in
Dysartsville Fire Dept: 5.26 in
Rutherford County
0.3 E Chimney Rock: 10.13 in
Shingle Hollow: 6.70 in
0.9 S Rutherfordton: 4.64 in
2.5 ENE Union Mills: 4.04 in
2.1 WSW Forest City: 2.25 in
3.6 N Ellenboro: 2.32 in