Flash Flood in Wyoming, May 28, 2001

Name: Flash Flood in Wyoming, May 28, 2001
Start: 2001-05-28T19:20
End: 2001-05-28T22:30
Location: Wyoming

May 28, 2001 · NWS UNR · 1 event in 1 county or zone

Heavy rain began falling over the Donkey Creek drainage, just south of Gillette, around 5 pm MST. Rainfall rates over 2 inches per hour were recorded.

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.

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Floods
Wind
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Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $400,000
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 happened

The episode as NWS UNR wrote it up.

Heavy rain began falling over the Donkey Creek drainage, just south of Gillette, around 5 pm MST. Rainfall rates over 2 inches per hour were recorded. A National Weather Service spotter recorded a storm total precipitation amount of 7.5 inches during the evening. Donkey Creek quickly rose to flood stage, tearing up paved golf cart paths and a service bridge located at the Gillette Country Club. Water depth was recorded at 4ft by a water mark on a stop sign at Four J Road near Southern Drive at 7 pm MST. In downtown Gillette, several cars were reported floating down the street, and numerous businesses had 1 to 2 feet of water on the first floor. There were no injuries or fatalities, however one man was rescued from a stalled vehicle in chest deep water.

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 Rapid City, SD wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 28, 1:20 PM MST, 6 hours earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 28, 1:20 PM MST, 6 hours before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION FOR WESTERN SD AND NORTHEASTERN WY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RAPID CITY SD
220 PM MDT MON MAY 28 2001

WK TSRA HAS DEVELOPED OVR THE NRN BLK HLS AND BEARLODGE...THE
FAVORED CONVECTIVE LOCATION GIVEN S LLVL FLOW. EXPECT TO SEE THIS
INCREASE INTO THE EVENING. THERE MAY BE A BRIEF BREAK IN THE ACTION
A FEW HOURS EITHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT AHEAD OF WK WAVE WHICH IS
CURRENTLY PRODUCING STORMS OVR SRN WY AND NRN CO. EITHER WAY...MDLS
AGREE WITH SUBSTANTIAL QPF OVR WRN SD OVER THE NEXT 24 HOURS OR SO.
THIS DUE TO WK CAP...LLVL UPSLOPE FLOW AND WK UPPER WAVE. GIVEN WK
FLOW...STORM MOTION OF RELATIVELY UNORGANIZED PRECIP TO BE TO THE N
LESS THAN 15 KTS. THIS MEANS THAT LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN WILL BE
POSSIBLE...BUT FAR BELOW FF GUIDANCE. RADAR HAS ALREADY ESTIMATED
SMALL POCKET OF 1.5-2 INCHES OF RAIN OVR NW LAWRENCE CO IN THE NRN
BLK HLS. MAY PUT THIS WORDING IN THE ZONES. AFTER THIS WAVE PASSES A
GLANCING SHOT OF COOLER AIR FROM PAC CD FNT WILL MOVE THROUGH BY
WED...DROPPING TEMPS A FEW NOTCHES FROM THE PREVIOUS FEW DAYS. AFTER
THAT STRONG RIDGING TO OCCUR THIS WEEKEND...MEANING MUCH WARMER
TEMPS. WILL GO ABOVE MEX AND FMR GUIDANCE IN THE EXTENDED AS MRF
FORECASTING 12 TO 16C 700MB AIR OVR WRN SD BY SAT THUS GUIDANCE
LIKELY WAY TOO LOW. AS WRN US TROF FORMS SUN AND MON...RIDGE GETS
DISPLACED TO THE E OF THE CWA WHICH COULD MEAN A MORE ACTIVE PRECIP
PATERN FOR US AS WK DISTURBANCES MOVE THROUGH IN SW FLOW ALOFT.
BECAUSE OF THAT HAVE PUT A CHC OF TSRA INTO SUN AND MON PDS IN THE
EXTENDED.

.UNR...NONE.
BAILEY

The radar

The Rapid City radar (KUDX), 217 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 02:20 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.

Flash Flood, Campbell

When: May 28, 7:20 PM MST to 10:30 PM MST
Where: Campbell County, 4 mi S of Gillette
Property damage: $400,000
Reported by: EMERGENCY MANAGER
Coordinates: 44.248, -105.548 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

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

Every storm in Wyoming in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Wyoming, 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: 5246920.