River levels at the Red Skelton Bridge and Vincennes river gauges rose above flood stage on the 17th as a result of rainfall around the 10th of March.
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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 IND wrote it up.
River levels at the Red Skelton Bridge and Vincennes river gauges rose above flood stage on the 17th as a result of rainfall around the 10th of March.
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 Indianapolis, IN wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Mar 17, 1:50 PM EST, 2 hours 55 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE INDIANAPOLIS IN 250 PM EDT TUE MAR 17 2009 .DISCUSSION... VISSAT SHOWS CLR SKIES ACRS THE FA. TEMPS WERE IN THE LOW 70S WITH DEWPTS IN THE LOW 40S AND WINDS WERE OUT OF THE SW AT 10-15 KTS. SFC ANALYSIS SHOWS A WEAK SFC FNT STRETCHING FROM HUDSON BAY THRU WI AND IA OUT TO THE OK PANHANDLE. FORECAST FOCUS IS ON TIMING OF POPS WED/WED NIGHT WITH FROPA. MODELS NOT SHOWING SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE IN UPR PATRN FOR SHORT TERM BUT SOME TIMING DIFFERENCES. FOR TIMING ON PRECIP/FROPA WED WL LEAN TOWARD FASTER GFS SINCE NAM IS A SLOW OUTLIER IN THE ENVELOPE OF SOLNS AS INDICATED IN THE PMDHMD. TONIGHT...SKIES WILL BE CLEAR MUCH OF THE NIGHT WITH PERHAPS SOME CIRRUS COMING IN THE EARLY MORNING. GUIDANCE SIMILAR SO WL USE AN AVG OF MAV/MET NUMBERS WHICH YIELDS LOWS IN THE UPR 40S. WED/WED NT...FNT ARRIVES IN THE NW BY 15Z IF NOT BEFORE BASED ON THE TIMING OF THE GFS. CENTRAL FA BY 18Z AND TO THE OHIO RVR BY 0Z. MOST OF THE PRECIP APPEARS TO BE POST FRONTAL. WL RAMP UP POPS ACCORDINGLY AND HAVE LOW CHC IN THE NW UNTIL 18Z. AFTER 18Z START RAMPING UP AND BY 21Z HAVE LIKELY POPS ACRS THE NW HALF AND HIGH CHC POPS C AND SLT IN THE FAR SE. OVRNIGHT HAVE LIKELY POPS ACRS THE C BEFORE 6Z AND THEN STILL IN THE SE IN THE 6-12Z TIMEFRAME. MUCAPES STILL PRETTY LOW /LOW 100S/ BUT ENUF TO KEEP ISOLATED THUNDER IN. MOISTURE SIGNIFICANTLY LIMITED THO AND NO JET ACTION SO SHUD ONLY BE ISOLATED GENERAL THUNDER AT WORST. PREFER THE WARMER GUIDANCE NUMBERS OF THE NAM FOR HIGHS WED AS LAST FEW DAYS HIGHS HAVE EXCEEDED GUIDANCE. WITH CLOUDS ARRIVING WITH THE FNT DO NOT SEE A NEED TO RAISE THEM FROM THERE. WED NT USED AN AVG BUT WENT A LITTLE CLOSER TO COOLER MAV NUMBERS AS THESE REFLECTED FROPA BETTER. THU/THU NT...WEATHER WILL BE QUIET AS COLDER HIGH PRESSURE SPILLS DOWN FROM THE NW. FOR TEMPS STUCK WITH COOLER GUIDANCE. EXTENDED /FRI-TUE/...A LOT OF AGREEMENT IN THE MAIN UPR PATRN BEING FAIRLY AMPLIFIED. SOME DISCREPANCY IN THE DETAILS OF LITTLE WEAK S/WS MVING THRU THE FLOW. WITH THIS IN MIND WILL STICK CLOSE TO HPC GUIDANCE WHICH EMPHASIZES A BLEND OF ENSEMBLE MEANS WHICH BUILDS THE UPR RDG OVR THE ERN US. THIS KEEPS THE FCST DRY UNTIL MON NT/TUE WHEN BOTH GFS AND ECMWF BRING IN SOME QPF. && .AVIATION...18Z TAFS... LOOK FOR VFR CONDS FOR THE NEXT 24 HOURS. BUFKIT SOUNDINGS SUGGEST WINDS ATOP AND MIXING LAYER THIS AFTERNOON SHOULD LEAD TO GUSTS TO AROUND 25KTS. THE GUSTS SHOULD END BY 02Z TONIGHT WITH VFR CONDS STILL EXPECTED TONIGHT WITH SW WINDS BETWEEN 5 AND 8KTS. CLOUDS WILL GRADUALLY INCREASE WITH CIGS LOWERING TOWARD 10KFT BETWEEN 18Z AND 21Z WEDS. IT APPEARS THAT ANY PRECIP WEDS SHOULD OCCUR BEHIND THE FRONT WHICH AT THIS TIME IS EXPECTED TO REMAIN NORTH OF ALL SITES THROUGH 18Z. && .IND WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...NONE. && PUBLIC...CP AVIATION...CO
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE INDIANAPOLIS IN 333 AM EDT TUE MAR 17 2009 INZ030-031-036>042-044-046>049-052>057-061>065-068>072-180745- CLINTON-HOWARD-MONTGOMERY-BOONE-TIPTON-HAMILTON-MADISON-DELAWARE- RANDOLPH-PARKE-HENDRICKS-MARION-HANCOCK-HENRY-CLAY-OWEN-MORGAN- JOHNSON-SHELBY-RUSH-GREENE-MONROE-BROWN-BARTHOLOMEW-DECATUR- DAVIESS-MARTIN-LAWRENCE-JACKSON-JENNINGS- 333 AM EDT TUE MAR 17 2009 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR CENTRAL INDIANA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT. NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY. THERE IS A CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS ON WEDNESDAY. SEVERE STORMS ARE NOT EXPECTED. LIGHTNING IS ALWAYS A HAZARD WITH ANY STORM THAT FORMS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT EXPECTED. && MORE INFORMATION...ALONG WITH OTHER WEATHER...HYDROLOGICAL AND CLIMATE INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND...AT HTTP://WEATHER.GOV/IND (ALL LOWERCASE) INZ021-028-029-035-043-045-051-060-067-180745- CARROLL-WARREN-TIPPECANOE-FOUNTAIN-VERMILLION-PUTNAM-VIGO- SULLIVAN-KNOX- 333 AM EDT TUE MAR 17 2009 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR CENTRAL INDIANA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT. FLOODING WILL CONTINUE ALONG PORTIONS OF THE TIPPECANOE AND WABASH RIVERS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY. THERE IS A CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS ON WEDNESDAY. SEVERE STORMS ARE NOT EXPECTED. LIGHTNING IS ALWAYS A HAZARD WITH ANY STORM THAT FORMS. FLOODING WILL CONTINUE ALONG THE WABASH AND TIPPECANOE RIVERS. SEE THE LATEST HYDROLOGIC STATEMENT FOR DETAILS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT EXPECTED. && MORE INFORMATION...ALONG WITH OTHER WEATHER...HYDROLOGICAL AND CLIMATE INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND...AT HTTP://WEATHER.GOV/IND (ALL LOWERCASE) SALLY
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
2 flood. Local standard time, as filed.
Flooding occurred along the Wabash River in and near Vincennes, IN. The river crested 2.68 feet above flood stage at the Vincennes (VCNI3) river gauge on March 20th with a reading of 18.68 feet. Flooding of this magnitude typically affects low lying agricultural land.
Flooding occurred along the Wabash River in and near Vincennes, IN. The river crested 2.6 feet above flood stage at the Red Skelton Bridge (VINI3) river gauge on March 20th with a reading of 20.1 feet. Flooding of this magnitude typically affects low lying agricultural land. River levels, and thus timing of flood, are estimated due to gauge malfunction.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Indiana in 2009Every state in 2009This day in weather historyWarnings in Indiana, March 2009
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: 157309, 157308.