Heavy rainfall on the 6th resulted in the Maury River exceeding flood stage by a little over 2 feet at 12 noon on the 6th.
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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.
The episode as NWS RNK wrote it up.
Heavy rainfall on the 6th resulted in the Maury River exceeding flood stage by a little over 2 feet at 12 noon on the 6th.
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 Blacksburg, VA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 6, 9:45 AM EST, 1 hour 40 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BLACKSBURG, VA 1045 AM EDT TUE MAY 6 2003 MORNING SFC ANALYSIS INDICATED MAIN SYNOPTIC WARM FRONT ALONG THE NC/VA BORDER...CURVING NORTH ON THE WEST SIDE OF THE MOUNTAINS INTO THE OH VLY. MAIN THUNDERSTORM OUTFLOWS WERE FURTHER SOUTH RUNNING FROM THE TN/AL BORDER EASTWARD ACROSS SC. PLACEMENT OF THESE FEATURES SUGGEST FCST AREA TO REMAIN RELATIVELY STABLE TODAY...ALTHOUGH SOME MODIFICATION IN OVERALL BOUNDARY LAYER CONDITIONS ANTICIPATED PER SWRLY FLOW. PER MORNING RNK/GSO SOUNDINGS...WEDGE IS VERY SHALLOW. WINDS ALOFT ARE OUT OF THE SSW AND ANY SUN AT ALL TODAY SHOULD HELP TO MIX BOUNDARY LAYER AND AT LEAST PARTIALLY RID FCST AREA OF COOL WEDGE THAT HAS BEEN SO PERSISTENT THE LAST COUPLE OF DAYS. BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH ANY SUBSTANTIAL RISE IN TEMPERATURE TODAY IS THE ABUNDANT CLOUD COVER FROM THE TN VALLEY MCS. RESULT WILL BE TMAX HARD PRESSED TO MAKE IT MUCH ABOVE 70. THINK MODELS WERE OVERLY AGRESSIVE WITH QPF OVER OUR FCST AREA TODAY. MCS OVER SRN TN-NRN ALABAMA WILL LIKELY MOVE EAST (AND NOT NE INTO OUR AREA AS DEPICTED BY THE 00 UTC RH AND QPF FIELDS) ALONG EXISTING OUTFLOW BOUNDARY...A PATH THAT WILL TAKE THE BULK OF THE RAINFALL AND SEVERE WX THREAT SOUTH OF THE FCST AREA. THE BIGGEST BYPRODUCT FOR OUR CWA WILL BE THE DEBRIS CLOUDINESS WITH ANY THREAT OF PRECIP FROM THIS FEATURE ACROSS OUR EXTREME SRN COUNTIES. THAT SAID...WILL LOWER POPS CONSIDERABLY TODAY...BUT STILL ALLOW FOR RANDOM CONVECTION PER GRAVITY WAVE INDUCED LIFT THAT MAY RIPPLE NORTH FROM EXISTING MCS. SHR/TSRA WILL LIKLEY TAKE ON THE FORM OF MINI BANDS OF DEEP CONVECTION...BUT NOTHING SVR FOR OUR AREA. ANOTHER AREA TO WATCH IS THE FRONTAL ZONE OVER THE OHIO VALLEY. HEATING THERE WILL RESULT IN AFTERNOON DEEP CONVECTION ACROSS OH AND KY WHICH WILL MOVE DOWNSTREAM INTO THE FCST AREA LATE IN THE DAY. .RNK... NC...NONE. VA...NONE. WV...NONE. 11
NCZ001>006-018>020-VAZ007-009>020-022>024-032>035-043>047-058-059- WVZ042>045-061130- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BLACKSBURG VA 533 AM EDT TUE MAY 6 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHEAST WEST VIRGINIA... WESTERN AND CENTRAL VIRGINIA...AS WELL AS NORTHWEST NORTH CAROLINA. .DAY ONE...TODAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN... NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Virginia in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in Virginia, May 2003
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: 5330656.