Name: Flash Flood in North Carolina, August 4, 2001
Start: 2001-08-04T09:30
End: 2001-08-04T12:00
Location: North Carolina

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: $1.7 million
Crop damage: $2.0 million
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 happened

The episode as NWS GSP wrote it up.

Abundant tropical moisture, with a direct trajectory off the Atlantic Ocean, was lifted up the higher terrain of northwest Madison County, resulting in potent precipitation-producing showers and thunderstorms that became anchored because of a light mean wind flow aloft. Rain gages in the flood area recorded upwards of 4 inches of rain in just a couple of hours.

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 Greenville-Spartanburg, SC wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 4, 9:24 AM EST, 6 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 4, 9:24 AM EST, 6 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
953 AM EDT SAT AUG 4 2001

UPPER SHRTWV TROF CONT TO PUSH S TOWARD FORECAST AREA...LIFTING
MOISTURE AND STIRRING UP SHOWERS AND TSTMS. COMBINED WITH THE
SURFACE FRONT DROPPING S ACROSS TN...THIS WILL PROVIDE BETTER FOCUS
FOR CONVECTION LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND THIS EVE OVER MTNS AND LIKELY
POPS LOOK GOOD ACROSS CWA...MAY CONSIDER CATEGORICAL OVER MTNS.

.GSP...
GA...NONE.
NC...NONE.
SC...NONE.

RB

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, Madison

When: August 4, 9:30 AM EST to 12:00 PM EST
Where: Madison County, 12 mi N of Marshall
Property damage: $1.7 million
Crop damage: $2.0 million
Reported by: LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates: 35.858, -82.706 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

The most severe of the recent flash floods to affect Madison County during the summer season developed rapidly Saturday morning. Flooding was swift and extensive, destroying highway bridges, private bridges and sweeping away structures and causing a large amount of property and crop damage. A state of emergency was declared for Madison County as a result of the flash flooding, the sixth major flash flood in Madison County in two months. Flooding lingered into the afternoon, damaging or destroying businesses, churches, homes and outside wells.

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 North Carolina in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in North Carolina, August 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: 5265962.