1 flash flood, as filed by the National Weather Service.
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.
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 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 Charleston, WV wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Sep 21, 2:00 PM EST, 3 hours 30 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHARLESTON WV 530 PM SUN SEP 21 2003 ******************************************************************** 530 PM SUN SEP 21 2003 UPDATED TO INCLUDE ISOLATED THUNDER IN NORTHEASTERN WEST VIRGINIA THIS EVENING. JMV ******************************************************************** 300 PM EDT SUN SEP 21 2003 SUNDAY NIGHT AND MONDAY... LOW CLOUDS HAVE FINALLY CLEARED ALL AREAS...BUT THE APPROACHING CIRRUS SHIELD IS RAPIDLY SPREADING ACROSS THE REGION. MOISTURE WILL BE MOVING NORTHWARD THIS EVENING OUT AHEAD OF A STRONG FRONTAL BOUNDARY...CURRENTLY OVER THE CENTRAL PLAINS. CLOUDS WILL BEGIN TO THICKEN OVERNIGHT...WITH A FEW SCATTERED SHOWERS POSSIBLE BEFORE SUNRISE. TOMORROW...THE FRONT WILL MOVE ACROSS THE REGION. HAVE RAISED POPS TO CATEGORICAL AS MOISTURE SHOULD BE DEEP AND THE FRONT SHOULD PROVIDE LIFT AREA WIDE. QPF SHOULD BE ON THE RANGE OF A HALF TO 3/4 OF AN INCH WHICH SHOULD ELIMINATE THE THREAT FOR FLOODING AS THE FRONT MOVES ACROSS AT A GOOD PACE. CLOUDS SHOULD ELIMINATE MOST OF THE THREAT FOR SEVERE WEATHER...BUT AGAIN WILL HAVE TO WATCH THIS POSSIBILITY AS WELL. FOR TEMPERATURES...HAVE GONE ON THE WARM SIDE OF THE GFS/FWC NUMBERS TONIGHT AS CLOUDS AND DEWPOINT IN THE LOW TO MID 60S SHOULD KEEP TEMPS US SOME. FOR TOMORROW...CLOUDS AND RAIN SHOULD KEEP TEMPS DOWN CLOSE TO THE MAV NUMBERS...SO HAVE LEANED THAT DIRECTION. MONDAY NIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY NIGHT... MODELS IN GOOD AGREEMENT WITH TIMING OF PASSING COLD FRONT. FRONT TO BE ALONG PKB-CRW LINE AROUND 00Z TUES AND EXITING THE MOUNTAINS BY 06Z. KEPT LIKELY POPS AHEAD OF FRONT AND QUICKLY DECREASE TO CHANCE BEHIND IT. DRY WEATHER EXPECTED TUESDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY AS HIGH PRESSURE BUILDS IN. HELD A BIT MORE CLOUDS ON TUESDAY AT LEAST ACROSS NORTH AND IN MOUNTAINS DUE TO COLD AIR ADVECTION THINKING THERE WILL STILL BE SOME CUMULUS DEVELOPMENT DURING THE DAY. CLOUDS SHOULD DISSIPATE BY EVENING ALLOWING FOR GOOD RADIATIONAL COOLING TUESDAY NIGHT. NEXT CHANCE FOR PRECIP COMES LATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT IN SOUTHEAST OHIO AS MODELS CONTINUE TO SPEED UP FRONTAL TIMING. THURSDAY THROUGH SUNDAY... WILL SPEED COLD FRONT UP TO MOVE THROUGH ON THURSDAY AS IN TIMING BY HPC. MODELS HAVE VERY COLD AIR MOVING IN BEHIND THE SYSTEM. MODELS ARE TYPICALLY TOO STRONG WITH COLD AIR PUSH AT THIS RANGE...SO WILL TONE DOWN SLIGHTLY. A SYSTEM MOVES THROUGH ON SATURDAY...BUT MOISTURE IS VERY LIMITED. WILL KEEP DRY FOR NOW...BUT INCREASE THE CLOUDS. .RLX... WV...NONE. VA...NONE. KY...NONE. OH...NONE. ESS/HC/RPY ******************************************************************** 1025 AM EDT SUN SEP 21 2003 AREA OF LOW CLOUDS AND SOME SPOTTY DRIZZLE CONTINUES ACROSS EASTERN KY NEWD INTO LEWIS COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL WV. THE LATEST SATELLITE IMAGES SHOWS THE EASTERN EDGE HAS BEGUN TO ERODE THE CLOUDS SO AS MIXING INCREASES THIS MORNING WITH THE SUNSHINE...SHOULD SEE THE CLOUDS DISSIPATE...FASTER THAN YESTERDAY. WILL HOLD TEMPERATURE FORECAST AS IS...A LITTLE FEARFUL THAT THE AREA WITH LOW CLOUDS MAY STRUGGLE TO GET AS HIGH...BUT AS LONG AS THE SUN IS OUT BY EARLY AFTERNOON...A QUICK RECOVERY SHOULD STILL BE POSSIBLE. MOST OF THE CHANGES TO THE TODAY PERIOD WILL BE TO CLEAN UP MORNING TYPE WORDING. OTHERWISE...WILL LEAVE THE REST OF THE FORECAST AS IS FOR NOW. ESS ******************************************************************** 345 AM EDT SUN SEP 21 2003 ...TODAY THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT... OLD FRONTAL ZONE AT 07Z RAN NE TO SW FROM NR DCA TO ROA TO TYS. MOISTURE AT 4 TO 8 THOUSAND FEET TODAY ALONG AND N OF FRONTAL ZONE. FIGURING ON LEAST CLOUDS IN SOUTHEAST OHIO. A WEAK E AND SE LOW LEVEL FLOW MAY CAUSE AN ISOLATED SHOWER TO FORM THIS AFTERNOON OVER WV MOUNTAINS. LOTS OF CIRRUS COMING OVER THE LOWER MOISTURE AS DAY WEARS ON. SE LOW LEVEL FLOW INCREASING LATE TONIGHT...WITH DEEPER MOISTURE MOVING OUT OF TN VALLEY. CHANCE OF SHOWERS IN THE 20 TO 30 PERCENT RANGE TONIGHT. BASING FORECAST FOR MONDAY WITH FRONTAL PASSAGE AT CRW AFTER DARK MONDAY NIGHT...SAY AROUND 03Z. INCREASED PROBABILITIES OF RAIN TO LIKELY WITH ABLE MOISTURE...SOME UPPER LEVEL DIVERGENCE...AND FRONT MONDAY INTO MONDAY NIGHT FROM W TO E. WITH INCREASING FLOW...FIGURING ORDER OF MAGNITUDE OF RAIN IN THE HALF INCH TO INCH RANGE. LOTS OF CLOUDS ON MONDAY SHOULD HOLD DOWN THUNDERSTORM COVERAGE AND LESSEN SHORT TERM INTENSITY OF RAIN A BIT. SO AT THIS TIME...NOT OVERLY CONCERN ABOUT ANY FLOOD HAZARD. WESTERLY FLOW ON TUESDAY SHOULD KEEP LOTS OF SUNSHINE AROUND FOR THE FIRST DAY OF AUTUMN. A COOL TUESDAY NIGHT SEEMS TO BE SETTING UP. ...WEDNESDAY THROUGH SATURDAY... MAIN QUESTION IS HANDLING OF COLD FRONT SLATED TO ARRIVE THURSDAY. GFS HAS SPED UP APPROACH OF THIS FRONT...BRINGING IT MOSTLY ACROSS CWA DURING THE DAY ON THURSDAY. CANADIAN SIDES WITH GFS...ECMWF IS A BIT SLOWER. LOOKS LIKE AN ANAFRONT SCENARIO WITH MOST PRECIP BEHIND FRONT. WILL HOLD OFF SPEEDING UP FRONT IN GRIDS FOR NOW...IN DEFERENCE TO ISC...BUT DAY SHIFT WILL NEED TO LOOK AT THIS. BATTY/CL ******************************************************************** 855 PM EDT SAT SEP 20 2003 EVENING UPDATE...STRATUS STARTING TO FORM UNDER INVERSION...SO WILL ADD LOTS OF CLOUDS FOR MOST AREAS OVERNIGHT...EXCEPT FOR SOUTHEAST OHIO. POTENTIAL FOR WIDESPREAD DENSE FOG OVERNIGHT WILL BE LIMITED BY CLOUD COVER. OTHERWISE...MINOR ADJUSTMENTS ONLY TO TEMPERATURES. JMV ********************************************************************
KYZ101>103-105-OHZ066-067-075-076-083>087-VAZ003-004-WVZ005>011- 013>020-024>040-046-047-211500- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHARLESTON WV 500 AM EDT SUN SEP 21 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHEASTERN OHIO...NORTHEASTERN KENTUCKY...SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA...AND MOST OF WEST VIRGINIA. .DAY ONE... NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN... THERE IS A SLIGHT CHANCE THAT A FEW THUNDERSTORMS COULD REACH SEVERE LIMITS MONDAY AFTERNOON OR MONDAY EVENING ACROSS SOUTHEAST OHIO...NORTHERN KENTUCKY...PLUS NORTHERN AND WESTERN COUNTIES OF WEST VIRGINIA. THE MOST LIKELY FEATURE WOULD BE BRIEF STRONG WIND GUSTS. HOWEVER...CLOUDS MAY BE THE LIMITING FACTOR FOR THE INSTABILITY. THE FASTER MOVEMENT OF THE SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS SHOULD REDUCE THE THREAT OF FLOODING. BATTY
The Charleston,WV radar (KRLX), 145 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 22:29 UTC.
1 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.
A nearly stationary thunderstorm formed along the county border between Upshur and Randolph Counties. Near Laurel Run, rains of around 2 inches likely fell in one hour. Roads were flooded and slightly damaged. No dwellings were affected.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in West Virginia in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in West Virginia, September 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: 5368631.