Slow moving thunderstorms brought isolated flooding reports to the mountains of east Tennessee during the evening hours.
Every event with a place to put it. 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 episode as NWS MRX wrote it up.
Slow moving thunderstorms brought isolated flooding reports to the mountains of east Tennessee during the evening hours.
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 Aug 17, 1:40 PM EST, 3 hours 55 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MORRISTOWN TN 240 PM EDT TUE AUG 17 2010 .SHORT TERM...(TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY)...DIFFUSE SURFACE BOUNDARY WHICH HAS PROVIDED A FOCUSING MECHANISM FOR ORGANIZED PRECIP MAINLY OVER SOUTHEAST TENNESSEE TODAY IS PROJECTED TO DRIFT SLOWLY NORTHWARD TAKING BULK OF PRECIP WITH IT. THUS ANTICIPATE BEST COVERAGE IN THE NORTHERN TIER OVERNIGHT AND HAVE KEPT LIKELY POPS GOING FOR THAT AREA. UPPER SHORT WAVE TROUGH APPROACHES THE AREA ON WEDNESDAY PROVIDING VERY MOIST SOUTHWESTERLY FLOW ALONG WITH MODERATE INSTABILITY. CONTINUED LIKELY POPS AREA-WIDE FOR TOMORROW. TEMPS WILL AGAIN BE DEPENDENT ON CLOUD COVER AND PRECIP COVERAGE. UNDERCUT MAV GUIDANCE FOR TOMORROW SLIGHTLY IN ANTICIPATION OF RELATIVELY GOOD PRECIP COVERAGE. .LONG TERM...(WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY)... THE MODELS ARE IN AGREEMENT ABOUT THE GENERAL PATTERN FOR WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY...HOWEVER THERE REMAINS A GREAT DEAL OF VARIANCE IN THE DETAILS. THE GENERAL TREND IS FOR THE TROPICAL GULF COAST LOW TO DRIFT TOWARD THE NORTH AND MERGE INTO A PASSING MID-LATITUDE SHORTWAVE TROUGH. THE SPEED AND INTENSITY OF THE TROPICAL LOW WILL BE THE KEY TO THE AMOUNT OF PRECIP ACROSS EAST TN. UNFORTUNATELY THE MODELS DIFFER WIDELY...WITH THE CANADIAN BEING FASTEST AND STRONGEST AND THE NAM BEING WEAKEST. THE GFS SEEMS TO BE A REASONABLE COMPROMISE BETWEEN THE TWO AND WILL GENERALLY BE FOLLOWED...BUT CONFIDENCE IS LOW. DEEP GULF MOISTURE WILL CONTINUE TO FEED INTO THE AREA WEDNESDAY NIGHT AS THE TROPICAL LOW DRIFTS NORTH. UPPER DIVERGENCE IN THE RIGHT ENTRANCE REGION OF THE UPPER JET WILL ENHANCE LIFT. THE GFS AND CANADIAN MODELS SHOW AN AREA OF STRONG 850 MB MOISTURE CONVERGENCE AT THE NOSE OF A 20-25 KT LLJ OVER THE AREA LATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT/EARLY THURSDAY MORNING. IF THIS FEATURE DOES DEVELOP...SOME SIGNIFICANT RAINFALL TOTALS WILL BE POSSIBLE. WILL HAVE LIKELY POPS WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND THURSDAY MORNING. THE UPPER TROUGH AXIS SHOULD BE EAST OF THE AREA BY THURSDAY AFTERNOON...SO POPS WILL DROP BACK TO A CHANCE. WHILE MODEL RUN-TO-RUN CONSISTENCY HAS BEEN POOR...THE TREND OF THE MORE RECENT RUNS HAS BEEN TOWARD A BUILDING RIDGE OVER THE AREA ON FRIDAY...WITH DEEP MOISTURE BEING SUPPRESSED TO OUR SOUTH. WILL LOWER POPS FRIDAY BUT WILL STILL KEEP A LOW CHANCE POP SOUTH/SLIGHT CHANCE NORTH DUE TO LOW CONFIDENCE. THE RIDGE GIVES WAY QUICKLY TO A TROUGH APPROACHING FROM THE NORTHWEST...WHICH SHOULD BRING INCREASING CHANCES OF SHOWERS ON SATURDAY. THE GFS SHOWS A CLOSED LOW DROPPING SOUTH ALONG THE EAST COAST FOR SUNDAY THROUGH TUESDAY. CONFIDENCE IN THIS SOLUTION IS LOW...SO WILL NOT MAKE ANY SIGNIFICANT CHANCES TO THE LAST THREE DAYS. && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... CHATTANOOGA AIRPORT, TN 73 93 74 89 74 / 50 60 70 70 30 KNOXVILLE MCGHEE TYSON AIRPORT, TN 72 88 73 89 71 / 70 60 70 60 20 OAK RIDGE, TN 72 87 72 89 71 / 70 70 70 60 20 TRI CITIES AIRPORT, TN 71 84 69 86 65 / 70 60 70 60 20 && .MRX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... NC...NONE. TN...NONE. VA...NONE. && LCM/DGS
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MORRISTOWN TN 504 AM EDT TUE AUG 17 2010 NCZ060-061-TNZ012>018-035>047-067>074-081>087-098>102-VAZ001-002- 005-006-008-180915- CHEROKEE-CLAY-SCOTT TN-CAMPBELL-CLAIBORNE-HANCOCK-HAWKINS- SULLIVAN-JOHNSON-MORGAN-ANDERSON-UNION-GRAINGER-HAMBLEN- NORTHWEST COCKE-COCKE SMOKY MOUNTAINS-NORTHWEST GREENE- SOUTHEAST GREENE-WASHINGTON TN-UNICOI-NORTHWEST CARTER- SOUTHEAST CARTER-ROANE-LOUDON-KNOX-JEFFERSON-NW BLOUNT- BLOUNT SMOKY MOUNTAINS-NORTH SEVIER-SEVIER SMOKY MOUNTAINS- SEQUATCHIE-BLEDSOE-RHEA-MEIGS-MCMINN-NORTHWEST MONROE- SOUTHEAST MONROE-MARION-HAMILTON-BRADLEY-WEST POLK-EAST POLK-LEE- WISE-SCOTT-RUSSELL-WASHINGTON- 504 AM EDT TUE AUG 17 2010 /404 AM CDT TUE AUG 17 2010/ THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHWEST NORTH CAROLINA...EAST TENNESSEE AND SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS DEVELOPING. DUE TO THEIR SLOW MOVEMENT...LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL WILL BE POSSIBLE LEADING TO SOME FLOODING IN A FEW AREAS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY A VERY MOIST AIR MASS WILL LINGER ACROSS THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION THROUGHOUT MOST OF THE WEEK...WITH SLOW-MOVING AND SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS PRODUCING A THREAT FOR LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL EACH DAY...MAINLY DURING THE AFTERNOON AND EVENING HOURS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED DUE TO THE ISOLATED NATURE OF THE POSSIBLE FLOODING THREAT.
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MORRISTOWN TN
624 PM EDT TUE AUG 17 2010
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0600 PM FLASH FLOOD ABINGDON 36.71N 81.97W
08/17/2010 WASHINGTON VA BROADCAST MEDIA
NUMEROUS ROADS CLOSED COUNTYWIDE.
&&PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MORRISTOWN TN
625 PM EDT TUE AUG 17 2010
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0600 PM FLASH FLOOD BRISTOL VA 36.61N 82.17W
08/17/2010 CITY OF BRISTOL VA BROADCAST MEDIA
NUMEROUS ROADS CLOSED CITYWIDE.
&&The Knoxville radar (KMRX), 88 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 22:32 UTC.
1 flood, 1 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.
A slow moving thunderstorm produced flooding, including damaging the floor at the local YMCA building in Erwin.
Highway department personnel reported 3 roads in Trade covered by high water from a slow moving thunderstorm.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Tennessee in 2010Every state in 2010This day in weather historyWarnings in Tennessee, August 2010
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: 269830, 250422.