Tennessee, 2002

Flash Flooding in Tennessee, January 23, 2002

January 23, 2002 · NWS MRX · 14 events in 14 counties and zones

Prolonged heavy rain throughout the day resulted in numerous road closings across much of central East Tennessee.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 14 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
None recorded
Crop damage
None recorded
Events
14

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.

Prolonged heavy rain throughout the day resulted in numerous road closings across much of central East Tennessee.

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 Jan 23, 4:15 AM EST, 5 hours earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jan 23, 4:15 AM EST, 5 hours before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MORRISTOWN TN
415 AM EST WED JAN 23 2002

IFPS ALPHA PROBLEMS SLOWED THE FORECAST PROCESS A BIT THIS MORNING...
BUT ZONES ISSUED BY 4AM EST.  LARGE SWATH OF RAIN CONTINUES TO OVERSPREAD
MOST OF THE FORECAST AREA THIS MORNING...EVEN SOME EMBEDDED THUNDER NOTED
OVER NORTH AL INTO SRN MIDDLE TN.

ISENTROPIC UPGLIDE SEEMS TO BE THE MAIN FORCING FOR THIS PCPN THIS
MORNING...WITH WARM FRONT EXTENDING FROM WEST TN SE ACROSS AL.
SHORT RANGE MODELS WERE IN FAIR AGREEMENT ON THIS INITIAL PCPN TO LIFT
NORTH OF THE FORECAST AREA BY THIS AFTERNOON...SO WORDED AS JUST A CHANCE
OF SHOWERS BY THE AFTERNOON.  APPEARS TO THEN BE A BREAK IN THE PCPN UNTIL
COLD FRONT EDGES CLOSER LATE TONIGHT.  THUS...I DECREASED POPS
TONIGHT ALL BUT NE PLATEAU WHERE LIKELY POPS WERE CONTINUED.

COLD FRONT SHOULD PUSH THRU THE FORECAST AREA THURSDAY EVENING/NIGHT
...SO POPS WERE LOWERED FOR FRIDAY AND DECREASED CLOUDS TO PARTLY CLOUDY
FRIDAY NIGHT.  BEST INSTABILITY AND SOME UPPER LEVEL DIVERGENCE FOR THURSDAY
AND THURSDAY NIGHT...SO ADDED A CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS.

STRONG LOW LEVEL JET AND TIGHT SURFACE GRADIENT TODAY...TONIGHT AND EVEN
AGAIN ON THURSDAY.  THUS...THE EARLIER ISSUED WIND ADVISORY WAS CARRIED
INTO TONIGHT FOR TN/NC MTN ZONES.

OTHERWISE...SOME POTENTIAL TO REACH THE WARMER MOS MAX TEMPS...BUT GIVEN
MORNING RAINS AND CLOUDINESS I COMPROMISED.  MAV MOS MINS LOOKED A
BIT COOL...AND I FAVORED AN NGM/AVN BLEND.  PRELIMINARY TEMPS/POPS BELOW
FOR COORDINATION:

FCSTID = 10
CHA   66  56  64  46 /  80  50  80  70
TYS   62  53  62  44 /  80  50  80  70
TRI   61  48  61  42 /  90  50  80  70
OQT   61  52  60  43 /  80  50  80  70

.MRX...
NC...WIND ADVISORY FOR TODAY AND TONIGHT FOR ZONES NCZ060>061.

TN...WIND ADVISORY FOR TODAY AND TONIGHT FOR ZONES
TNZ018...TNZ041...TNZ043...TNZ045...TNZ047...TNZ072...TNZ074...TNZ087
...TNZ102.

VA...NONE.

TG

The radar

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 132 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 14:13 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

14 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.

Flash Flood, Meigs

When
January 23, 9:15 AM EST to 4:30 PM EST
Where
Meigs County, Countywide
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
35.513, -84.813 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Flash Flood, Anderson

When
January 23, 9:30 AM EST to 8:00 PM EST
Where
Anderson County, Countywide
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
36.118, -84.198 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Flash Flood, Campbell

When
January 23, 9:30 AM EST to 8:00 PM EST
Where
Campbell County, Countywide
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
36.404, -84.149 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Flash Flood, Bledsoe

When
January 23, 9:30 AM EST to 1:00 PM EST
Where
Bledsoe County, Countywide
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
35.596, -85.205 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Flash Flood, Monroe

When
January 23, 9:45 AM EST to 4:30 PM EST
Where
Monroe County, Countywide
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
35.443, -84.253 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Flash Flood, Morgan

When
January 23, 9:50 AM EST to 5:25 PM EST
Where
Morgan County, Countywide
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
36.135, -84.649 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Flash Flood, Rhea

When
January 23, 10:00 AM EST to 5:25 PM EST
Where
Rhea County, Countywide
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
35.609, -84.924 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Flash Flood, Knox

When
January 23, 10:30 AM EST to 5:25 PM EST
Where
Knox County, Countywide
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
35.993, -83.937 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Flash Flood, Loudon

When
January 23, 10:30 AM EST to 5:25 PM EST
Where
Loudon County, Countywide
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
35.735, -84.312 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Flash Flood, Roane

When
January 23, 10:30 AM EST to 5:25 PM EST
Where
Roane County, Countywide
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
35.848, -84.523 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Flash Flood, McMinn

When
January 23, 12:30 PM EST to 5:30 PM EST
Where
McMinn County, Countywide
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
35.425, -84.617 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Flash Flood, Scott

When
January 23, 1:07 PM EST to 6:00 PM EST
Where
Scott County, Countywide
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
36.429, -84.503 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Flash Flood, Union

When
January 23, 2:00 PM EST to 3:00 PM EST
Where
Union County, Countywide
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
36.288, -83.837 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Flash Flood, Blount

When
January 23, 2:48 PM EST to 4:40 PM EST
Where
Blount County, Countywide
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
35.687, -83.925 (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 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in Tennessee, January 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: 5276739, 5276733, 5276735, 5276741, 5276746, 5276740, 5276743, 5276736, 5276737, 5276744, 5276738, 5276745, 5276734, 5276742.