Sometimes we don’t have to go far back in time to discover a significant weather event. This event along with the pre-Christmas cold snap of 2022 (#38), and even a May severe weather event this year (which will be featured later) show this.

We are combining two separate flash flood events for coverage here. The first occurred during the wee-morning hours into the midday hours on July 19th with the worst impacts being felt in the Jackson Purchase area, especially the city of Mayfield (which was recovering from a catastrophic tornado hit back in Dec 2021, that we will talk about later on in this series as well) as well as smaller communities across the Purchase such as Arlington, Kevil, and Wingo. The second event occurred just two in a half weeks later across Fulton/Hickman Counties (especially the city of Hickman), which were also impacted by the July 19th event.

Essentially, you had a ring of fire pattern where a stalled out boundary (marking the edge of the real hot air) set up across the Jackson Purchase/far Southeast Missouri area. Wind flow in the upper atmosphere was parrel to this boundary allowing for storms to train over the same areas with both the July 19th and August 4th events. The atmosphere had record amounts of humidity in it as well allowing for 1-2 inch + per hour rainfall rates. Severe thunderstorms from July 18th through August 4th also produced several EF-1 tornadoes and reports of damaging winds across the area, sadly producing 1 fatality in Symsonia (in NE Graves County)

Why Was This Event Significant

• This event caused significant property damage to many homes, causing likely over $5 million dollars in damage. Arlington, Kevil, Mayfield, Wingo, and various areas from Murray to Calvert City and points north saw property damage from the July 19th flooding. To add to the misery areas in Fulton, Hickman, Graves, and Marshall Counties were still reeling from the Dec 2021 major tornado, just a year and a half ago. Several homes were impacted and significantly damaged in/around Hickman for the August 4th event, which caused an additional 2-3 million dollars in damage.

• This event (7/19) also set the state 24-hour rainfall record at just shy of 13 inches near Fancy Farm (just west of Mayfield)

• Infrastructure was impacted as dozens of roads were washed out with the 7/19 event, and KY-94 near Hickman was impacted by a mudslide. Pretty much every major state/federal road in the area was impacted, causing a traffic standstill.

LINKS

• Top 40 Weather Events