Flood in Kentucky, December 17 to 18, 2001

Name: Flood in Kentucky, December 17 to 18, 2001
Start: 2001-12-17T13:30
End: 2001-12-18T19:30
Location: Kentucky

December 17 to 18, 2001 · NWS LMK · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 flood, as filed by the National Weather Service.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Louisville, KY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 17, 1:20 AM EST, 12 hours 10 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Dec 17, 1:20 AM EST, 12 hours 10 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOUISVILLE KY
120 AM EST MON DEC 17 2001

...MORE SIG RAIN FOR SRN IN/NRN KY TODAY...

WILL GENERALLY FOLLOW MESO-ETA FOR THIS MORNINGS FCST...WITH BETTER
REPRESENTATION OF SFC/MID-LEVEL LOW OVER AR/TX. SRN IN COUNTIES
COULD SEE SIG FLOODING TODAY...AS RADAR ALREADY INDICATING 2-3
FALLEN. SFC LOW OVER ARK WILL MIGRATE NE ALONG WARM-FRONT TYPE
BAROCLINIC ZONE ALIGNED NEAR OHIO-RIVER VALLEY. CONTINUED UPGLIDE ALONG
300K SFC THRU 15Z/MON...COUPLED WITH SIG 850MB WARM QG FRONTOGENESIS
OVER NRN PARTS OF CWA. 300K MIXING RATIOS ABOVE 8 G/KG THRU 18Z...SO
HEAVY RAIN THREAT WILL CONTINUE TIL THEN. BEST RAINS WILL OCCUR
ALONG/NORTH OF OHIO-RIVER NEAR STRONGEST BAROCLINICITY...WITH
SCATTERED WAA SHOWERS SE. 700MB OMEGAS SUGGEST HEAVIEST RAINS WILL
FALL SRN IN/KSDF AREA AROUND 12Z-15Z...WITH LEX/BWG AREAS TOWARDS
18Z/MON. LOW/MID-LEVEL LAPSE RATES NEAR 6C/KM...AND SFC BASED LIS
BELOW ZERO IN SRN/ERN ZONES THIS AFTERNOON...SOME THUNDER POSSIBLE.
WILL CONTINUE FLOOD WATCH THRU 2045Z...APPROX ALNG/WEST OF BWG-LEX
LINE...THOUGH FEEL SRN IN HAS BEST POTENTIAL FOR SIG FLOODING.
CONTINUED SFC WAA WITH CLOUDS/PRECIP SHOULD KEEP TEMPS NEAR CURRENT
LEVELS...WITH ACROSS FRONT DELTA-TS ABOUT 5-10 DEG.
TONITE...LEFT-EXIT REGION OF 120K 300MB JET WILL AIDE IN SOME EARLY
EVE SHOWERS...BUT AS FEATURE MOVES EAST SHRA WILL DIMINISH BY
6Z-9Z/TUE. STILL SOME GOOD RAINFALL AMOUNTS POSS SINCE 300K MIXING
RATIOS REMAIN ABV 4 G/KG. CLOUDS TO REMAIN THRU MOST OF NIGHT AS PER
TIME-HEIGHT SECTIONS...PARTIAL CLEARING BY DAYBREAK TUE. MINIMA
MODULATED BY CLOUDS...GENERALLY MID 30S NW TO NEAR 40 SE. MID-LEVEL
SHORT-WAVE RIDGING OVER CWA FOR TUE...WITH 850MB TEMPS DROPPING 2-4C
FROM 0Z/TUE TO 0Z/WED. GIVEN MOSTLY SUNNY FCST WITH WEAK 300K
DOWNGLIDE REGIME...ILL GO A FEW ABOVE MAV GUIDANCE MAXIMA...AS
LOW-LEVEL THERMAL TROUGH IS EAST OF CWA BY TUE PM.
12Z-18Z/WED...ANOTHER MID-LEVEL WAVE AND ASSOC SFC TROUGH PASS THRU
CWA. BASED ON 300K/850-500MB RH FIELDS AND INSTABILITIES...BEST CHC
FOR PRECIP IN SRN IN BUT AT THIS POINT DOESNT LOOK LIKE MORE THAN
20% POPS SO WILL LEAVE OUT OF ZONES. PARTLY SUNNY FCST SEEMS GOOD
GIVEN 70% RH VALUES...PARTICULARLY IN NRN AREAS. BIG STORY HERE IS
COLD AIR USHERED IN BEHIND DEPARTING WAVE WED PM AS 850MB ZERO-LINE
NEAR KBNA BY 0Z/THU. IF WE HAVE ENUF CLOUDS COULD BE A TEMPS
DROPPING KIND OF DAY. WILL GO TOWARDS MAV GUIDANCE
MAXIMA...LOWER/MID 40S MOST AREAS. COLD TEMPS THU AM AS 850-500MB
RHS BELOW 20% AND 850MB TEMPS NEAR -4C. WONT FIDDLE WITH
EXTENDED...OTHER THINGS TO DO.

.SDF...FLOOD WATCH (LATEST UPDATE UNDER FLSSDF) FOR FOLLOWING
COUNTIES INZ076>079-083-084-089>092-
KYZ023>040-045-053-061>063-070>072.

XXV

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.

Flood, Ohio

When: December 17, 1:30 PM EST to December 18, 7:30 PM EST
Where: Ohio forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 37.478, -86.849 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

The Rough River at Dundee was above flood stage form early in the afternoon of Dec. 17 until the evening of Dec. 18. Flood stage at Dundee is 25 feet. The river crested at 25.30 feet at 230 AM EST on the morning of the 18th, causing minor flooding. At this level, a section of highway about a half mile long near the river bridge begins to flood.

What these are

Flood: Flooding that develops more slowly than a flash flood: rivers leaving their banks, or water standing over land for an extended time.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Kentucky in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Kentucky, December 2001

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5272172.