Name: Flash Flood in Tennessee, April 17, 2002
Start: 2002-04-17T15:30
End: 2002-04-17T16:30
Location: Tennessee

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

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $5,000
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 MRX wrote it up.

Water and rock debris were reported across the roads around Fall Creek Falls State Park.

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 Morristown, TN wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 17, 1:13 PM CST, 2 hours 17 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Apr 17, 1:13 PM CST, 2 hours 17 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MORRISTOWN TN
313 PM EDT WED APR 17 2002

APPROACHING MID LEVEL VORTICITY CENTER STILL SHOWS SOME SIGNS OF
CIRCULATION AS IT MOVES INTO WRN TN.  AIRMASS HAS BECOME MODERATELY
UNSTABLE AS TEMPS HAVE WARMED INTO THE MID 70S TO MID 80S.  MOST
CONVECTION IS CURRENTLY ALONG SE PARTS OF PLATEAU...AND ALSO ACROSS
WRN NC MTNS.  GIVEN THIS INSTABILITY PLUS SHORTWAVE/VORT CENTER...
WILL GO WELL ABOVE THE MOS POPS FOR TONIGHT.  CONVECTION SHOULD LAST
BEYOND THE EVENING HOURS...BUT VERY WEAK WINDS ALOFT SHOULD HINDER
SEVERE DEVELOPMENT.

SHOULD SEE LESS CONVECTION FOR TOMORROW...SO I TRENDED POPS TOWARD
THE DRIER NGM MOS.  JUST SLIGHT CHANCE MOST AREAS...EXCEPT MTNS
WHERE 30% POPS WERE CARRIED OVER FROM PREVIOUS PACKAGE...WITH
AFTERNOON WORDING.  DRY THURSDAY NIGHT...THEN RAIN CHANCES LOOK TO
INCREASE FROM THE NORTH FRIDAY INTO SATURDAY.  MAIN TRIGGER WOULD
APPEAR TO BE THE SOUTHWARD SAGGING COLD FRONT.

OTHERWISE...MOS TEMPS LOOKED REASONABLE FOR MOST PERIODS...AND
ACTUALLY SOMEWHAT OF A PERSISTENCE FORECAST GIVEN THE SUMMER LIKE
PATTERN.  STUCK CLOSE TO MOS POPS FOR PERIODS OTHER THAN TONIGHT.

ISC GRIDS ALREADY SENT...AND MY PRELIMINARY TEMPS/POPS FOLLOW:

CHA  63/85/61/84/62  30/20/5/20/30
TYS  63/83/60/82/60  40/20/5/30/40
TRI  59/83/57/80/58  50/20/5/40/50
OQT  62/83/60/82/60  40/20/5/30/40

.MRX...
NC...NONE.
TN...NONE.
VA...NONE.

TG

The radar

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 109 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:28 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.

Flash Flood, Bledsoe

When: April 17, 3:30 PM CST to 4:30 PM CST
Where: Bledsoe County, West Portion
Property damage: $5,000
Reported by: PARK/FOREST SERVICE
Coordinates: 35.596, -85.205 (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

More

Every storm in Tennessee in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in Tennessee, April 2002

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: 5289924.