After a very wet and active weather pattern in March, little relief was observed in April across much of the lower Great Lakes and Ohio Valley. Repeated rounds of heavy rain, thunderstorms and occasional severe weather occurred in the Ohio River basin across Indiana, northern Kentucky and portions of Ohio.
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 LMK wrote it up.
After a very wet and active weather pattern in March, little relief was observed in April across much of the lower Great Lakes and Ohio Valley. Repeated rounds of heavy rain, thunderstorms and occasional severe weather occurred in the Ohio River basin across Indiana, northern Kentucky and portions of Ohio. This resulted in a prolonged period of high water and flooding on the Ohio River, especially from Cannelton to Tell City.
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 Louisville, KY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 17, 2:17 PM EST, 1 hour 43 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOUISVILLE KY 317 PM EDT Fri Apr 17 2015 .SHORT TERM (Now through Saturday Night)... Issued at 310 PM EDT Fri Apr 17 2015 Pleasant weather more typical of late spring will prevail through Saturday evening. The boundary layer is gradually drying from the north as high pressure builds into the Great Lakes. This drying will allow any remaining strato-cu to dissipate by early evening, and dewpoints will continue to drop farther into the 50s. While radiational cooling conditions are otherwise favorable, expect just enough of a NE breeze across southern Indiana and north central Kentucky to preclude fog formation, but we will include patchy fog across south central Kentucky around daybreak Saturday. The high to our north will be solidly in control Saturday into Saturday evening, with plenty of sunshine and highs pushing 80. Deepening SW flow ahead of an upper trof in the Plains and a surface low developing over the Arklatex region will bring a quick increase in moisture late Sat night. POPs will ramp up quickly after midnight, with likely/categorical showers and storms by daybreak Sunday. .LONG TERM (Sunday through Friday)... Issued at 300 PM EDT Fri Apr 17 2015 ...Unsettled Weather Continuing into Early Next Week Before Drier Conditions Finally Move in... The synoptic pattern at the start of the long term period will feature an amplified trough across the Central Plains, with downstream ridging across the Ohio Valley. Two PV anomalies of note will eject out of this trough Sunday into early Monday, each of which will help induce surface lows and associated precipitation across the Ohio Valley. Sunday looks to start out rather wet. As mentioned above, a PV anomaly will eject out of the parent trough to the west, helping to induce a surface low across the mid-MS Valley by Sunday morning. In response, isentropic ascent will increase and spread northeast along with the deepening surface low Sunday morning into early Sunday afternoon. This will lead to a widespread precip shield, likely oriented northwest to southeast, that will spread across the Ohio Valley. Within this precip shield, a few embedded thunderstorms containing moderate to briefly heavy rainfall appear increasingly likely. Given the overall forcing and good moisture transport, have upped precip amounts a bit from the previous forecast. Think a widespread half inch to an inch of rain looks possible with this initial activity, which could lead to a few additional, minor flooding issues. By late Sunday afternoon, the isentropic ascent will lift to the north as a surface warm front slides north of the Ohio River. This should place portions of KY within the warm sector, likely limiting the coverage of showers/storms Sunday afternoon into Sunday evening, especially across the southwestern CWA (near Bowling Green). Therefore, will advertise highs approaching 80 on Sunday in these locations, all depending on the amount of cloud cover that is able to hang on. By Sunday night, attention will turn to the west as yet another PV anomaly ejects out of the main upper-level trough. This will induce yet another surface cyclone across portions of Missouri, helping to tighten an associated cold front over the MS Valley Sunday night. This front will race into the Ohio Valley late Sunday night into Monday morning, likely bringing renewed shower/thunderstorm chances. There appears to be a pretty good threat of severe weather further west with this activity, but it will be pushing through the LMK CWA at an unfavorable time of day for a widespread severe threat here. Nevertheless, can't rule out a strong storm or two capable of some strong, gusty winds especially west of I-65 with this activity early Monday morning. The precipitation chances will come to an end from west to east on Monday as the front slides through. Will have to keep an eye on the timing of the front Monday, as a slower solution may allow the eastern CWA near the I-75 corridor to destabilize if it moves through more into the afternoon hours. Upper-level troughing will then remain in place through much of the upcoming week, leading to cooler temperatures than we've seen as of late. Highs each day will generally be in the 60s, with lows in the 40s. Some precipitation chances will arrive once again Wednesday through Thursday of next week, but wide spread in guidance warrants only slight chance mention at this time. && .AVIATION (18Z TAF Update)... Updated at 1255 PM EDT Fri Apr 17 2015 Low clouds continue to hang on with high-end MVFR at SDF and BWG, and fuel-alternate at LEX. Drier air is poised just to the north, but having a hard time building south into Kentucky. Based on recent trends, still expect clouds to gradually lift and scatter by mid-afternoon in SDF and LEX. BWG will remain MVFR until sunset. Light winds and clear skies overnight will open the door to fog potential at BWG. Will go for a period of MVFR visibilities around daybreak, but kept SDF and LEX unrestricted due to a light ENE breeze that will keep the boundary layer more mixy. Surface high builds closer on Saturday so easterly winds will increase. Dry column will limit cloud cover to diurnal cu around FL040. && .LMK WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... KY...NONE. IN...NONE. && Short Term........RAS Long Term.........KJD Aviation..........RAS
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOUISVILLE KY 327 PM EDT FRI APR 17 2015 INZ076>079-083-084-089>092-KYZ023>043-045>049-053>057-061>067- 070>078-081-082-181930- ORANGE IN-WASHINGTON IN-SCOTT IN-JEFFERSON IN-DUBOIS IN-CRAWFORD IN- PERRY IN-HARRISON IN-FLOYD IN-CLARK IN-HANCOCK KY-BRECKINRIDGE KY- MEADE KY-OHIO KY-GRAYSON KY-HARDIN KY-BULLITT KY-JEFFERSON KY- OLDHAM KY-TRIMBLE KY-HENRY KY-SHELBY KY-FRANKLIN KY-SCOTT KY- HARRISON KY-SPENCER KY-ANDERSON KY-WOODFORD KY-FAYETTE KY-BOURBON KY- NICHOLAS KY-NELSON KY-WASHINGTON KY-MERCER KY-JESSAMINE KY-CLARK KY- LARUE KY-MARION KY-BOYLE KY-GARRARD KY-MADISON KY-BUTLER KY- EDMONSON KY-HART KY-GREEN KY-TAYLOR KY-CASEY KY-LINCOLN KY-LOGAN KY- WARREN KY-SIMPSON KY-ALLEN KY-BARREN KY-MONROE KY-METCALFE KY- ADAIR KY-RUSSELL KY-CUMBERLAND KY-CLINTON KY- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...PAOLI...SALEM...SCOTTSBURG...MADISON... JASPER...MARENGO...TELL CITY...CORYDON...NEW ALBANY... JEFFERSONVILLE...HAWESVILLE...HARDINSBURG...BRANDENBURG... BEAVER DAM...LEITCHFIELD...ELIZABETHTOWN...FORT KNOX... MOUNT WASHINGTON...SHEPHERDSVILLE...LOUISVILLE...LA GRANGE... BEDFORD...NEW CASTLE...SHELBYVILLE...FRANKFORT...GEORGETOWN... CYNTHIANA...TAYLORSVILLE...LAWRENCEBURG...VERSAILLES...LEXINGTON... PARIS...CARLISLE...BARDSTOWN...SPRINGFIELD...HARRODSBURG... NICHOLASVILLE...WINCHESTER...HODGENVILLE...LEBANON...DANVILLE... LANCASTER...RICHMOND...MORGANTOWN...BROWNSVILLE...MUNFORDVILLE... GREENSBURG...CAMPBELLSVILLE...LIBERTY...STANFORD...RUSSELLVILLE... BOWLING GREEN...FRANKLIN...SCOTTSVILLE...GLASGOW...TOMPKINSVILLE... EDMONTON...COLUMBIA...JAMESTOWN...BURKESVILLE...ALBANY 327 PM EDT FRI APR 17 2015 /227 PM CDT FRI APR 17 2015/ THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTH CENTRAL INDIANA AND CENTRAL KENTUCKY. .DAY ONE...TONIGHT. NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY. ANOTHER ROUND OF SHOWERS AND STORMS IS EXPECTED SATURDAY NIGHT LASTING OFF AND ON THROUGH MONDAY. ANY THUNDERSTORM THAT DEVELOPS COULD PRODUCE CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING AND HEAVY RAINFALL. ADDITIONAL RAINFALL AMOUNTS THROUGH MONDAY COULD RANGE FROM 1 TO 2 INCHES WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS. THIS RAINFALL COMBINED WITH SATURATED SOILS WILL LEAD TO FURTHER RISES ON AREA RIVERS...LAKES AND STREAMS. PONDING OF WATER IN LOW LYING AREAS COULD BECOME A CONCERN AS WELL. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED AT THIS TIME. && MORE INFORMATION...ALONG WITH OTHER WEATHER...HYDROLOGICAL AND CLIMATE INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND...AT WEATHER.GOV/LOUISVILLE. RAS/KD
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.
Several rounds of heavy rain both locally and well upstream brought the Ohio River at Cannelton to flood. The river crested at 42.3 feet on April 18th, then fell below flood stage on April 20th.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Indiana in 2015Every state in 2015This day in weather historyWarnings in Indiana, April 2015
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: 572722.