Name: Flash Flood in Kentucky, May 21, 2001
Start: 2001-05-21T17:55
End: 2001-05-21T17:55
Location: Kentucky

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: $1,000
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 Wilmington, OH wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 21, 2:00 PM EST, 3 hours 55 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 21, 2:00 PM EST, 3 hours 55 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WILMINGTON OH
300 PM EDT MON MAY 21 2001

18Z SFC ANALYSIS DEPICTS COLD FRONT OVER ILL...TRAILING RATHER DEEP
SFS LPRES OVER WI.  SECOND SFC WAVE NOTED OVER ARKANSAS...WHERE
WATER VAPOR IMAGERY SUGGESTS VERY GOOD DIVERGENCE ALOFT.  DIURNAL
CONVECTION AHEAD OF SFC BNDRY BEGINNING TO FIRE OVER WESTERN SXNS OF
THE CWFA.  LACK OF INSOLATION HAS KEPT THE AREA RELATIVELY STABLE
TDY...AND AS A RESULT UPDRAFTS HV BEEN RATHER SMALL AND LACKING IN
ORGANIZATION.  GIVEN CURRENT WIND FIELDS HWVR...AND WITH SOME HOLES
OPENING IN THE CLD CVR...XPCT A CONTD EVOLUTION INTO DEEPER/MORE
ORGANIZED CONVECTION WITH MODERATE STRAIGHT LINE WIND POTNL.  WL
LIKELY SEE A BOX ISSUED BEFORE 4 PM...AND MAY HOLD ZONES A LITTLE
LATER IN ANTICIPATION.  OTHW...SECOND WAVE PROGGED BY LATEST SHORT
RANGE GUID TO BRING PCPN BACK IN AFTER MIDNIGHT.  BEST PCPN
EFFICENCY AND LOWEST FFG VALUES ARE OVER THE SE AND WL CONT WATCH
TNGT.  ELSW...WL ALLOW FFA TO EXPIRE ALTHOUGH LATER SHIFTS WL HV TO
MONITOR CONVECTIVE TRENDS OVERNIGHT.

WL HIT POPS HARDEST EAST TUE...TAPERING TO 60 POPS IN THE NW.  WL
MENTION +RA STIL IN THE SE...BUT ALLOW MID SHIFT DETERMINE IF FFA
NEEDS TO BE EXTENDED.  DRYING TREND XPCTD TUE NGT...ALTHOUGH WL HOLD
ONTO LOW POPS IN THE SE ERLY.  NOT MUCH FORCING ON WED...AND IN FACT
AREA LKS TO BE IN BIT OF A DRY SLOT.  WL KEEP LOW CHC POPS HWVR
GIVEN STEEP LAPSE RATES AND MOIST BNDRY LAYER.  TRENDED TWRD WARMER
FWC VALUES THROUGHOUT AS AT LEAST A LITTLE SUN XPCTD.

.ILN...FLASH FLOOD WATCH TONIGHT SOUTH CENTRAL OHIO AND NORTH
CENTRAL KY.

JOHNSTONE

The radar

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

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.

Flash Flood, Lewis

When: May 21, 5:55 PM EST
Where: Lewis County, Garrison
Property damage: $1,000
Reported by: LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates: 38.532, -83.378 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

High water on several roads in Garrison.

What these are

Flash Flood: Flooding that begins within six hours of the rain that causes it, or of a dam or levee failure or ice jam release, often with deadly speed.

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

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Kentucky in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Kentucky, May 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: 5248963.