Tropical moisture interacting with a slow-moving cold front produced widespread heavy rainfall across northeastern Oklahoma on October 8th with amounts from two to five inches common and amounts of five to seven inches locally. This heavy rainfall resulted in moderate flooding along the Illinois River near Watts.
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The episode as NWS TSA wrote it up.
Tropical moisture interacting with a slow-moving cold front produced widespread heavy rainfall across northeastern Oklahoma on October 8th with amounts from two to five inches common and amounts of five to seven inches locally. This heavy rainfall resulted in moderate flooding along the Illinois River near Watts.
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 Tulsa, OK wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Oct 9, 3:12 AM CST, 2 hours 3 minutes earlier.
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</html>PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK
1215 AM CDT FRI OCT 09 2009
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
1213 AM FLASH FLOOD MCALESTER 34.93N 95.77W
10/09/2009 PITTSBURG OK EMERGENCY MNGR
STATE HIGHWAY 31 CLOSED DUE TO FLOODING. AT LEAST ONE
RESIDENCE IN MCALESTER HAS WATER IN THE HOUSE.
&&
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</html>The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.
The Illinois River near Watts rose above its flood stage of 13 feet at 6:15 a.m. CDT on October 9th. The river crested at 22.00 feet at 8:00 p.m. CDT on the 9th, resulting in moderate flooding. The river fell below flood stage at 12:30 p.m. CDT on the 10th.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Oklahoma in 2009Every state in 2009This day in weather historyWarnings in Oklahoma, October 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: 199442.