Flash Flooding and Coastal Flood in Virginia, February 17, 1998

Intensifying low pressure, containing abundant moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, moved along the Appalachian Mountains during the late morning and afternoon of the 17th. The system, which entrained tropical air, dumped between 1 and 2 inches of rain in valleys and between 3 and 3 1/2 inches in the mountains. The rain, falling onto saturated soil from previous storms, caused minor flooding of creeks and streams in portions of the western Virginia piedmont and the Shenandoah Valley. There was at least one confirmed water rescue, occurring on Christians Creek (Augusta Co) near the town of Verona. A daily rainfall record was broken at IAD (Loudoun Co); 1.36 inches fell.As the storm system moved north of the region, most of the rain ended. However, a thin line of showers and thunderstorms developed after 1600EST along and just east of the Blue Ridge and remained nearly stationary for several more hours, dumping additional rains of nearly an inch across portions of Orange and Culpeper Cos. The additional rainfall maintained flooding conditions in these areas. One Orange Co location reported a storm total of 3.5 inches.Flooding in Culpeper Co closed 20 roads, though some were along the Rapidan River along the southern border. In Waynesboro (Augusta Co), eight streets were flooded due to high standing water.The gradient between the low and a fairly strong high pressure area over New England caused east winds to increase to 30 to 35 mph with brief gusts in excess of 45 mph over a small area of northern Virginia encompassing the suburbs of Washington, DC. Damage was relatively minor, consisting of fallen wires, and a few small trees and limbs. The same easterly flow sloshed the tidal Potomac River up its slim channel near Washington, DC, and caused a brief period of minor flooding in Old Town Alexandria during the evening high tide.