Numerous thunderstorms occurred along a very slow-moving cold front that extended from northwest Arkansas to the Lower Ohio Valley. The storms produced excessive rainfall and isolated flash flooding, as well as minor river flooding.
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 PAH wrote it up.
Numerous thunderstorms occurred along a very slow-moving cold front that extended from northwest Arkansas to the Lower Ohio Valley. The storms produced excessive rainfall and isolated flash flooding, as well as minor river flooding. The storms were aided by a weak 700 mb trough that moved southeast across southwest Indiana and southern Illinois. Cell motions were very slow and erratic, along with some cell mergers and backbuilding cells. The air mass was characterized by tropical humidity, with precipitable water values around 1.8 inches. The deep-layer wind flow was roughly parallel to the surface frontal boundary, allowing training of cells over the same areas. Pockets of sunshine and strong heating destabilized the atmosphere, further supporting convective development.
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 Paducah, KY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 3, 1:27 PM CST, 2 hours 18 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PADUCAH KY 227 PM CDT FRI JUL 3 2015 .SHORT TERM...(THIS EVENING THROUGH SUNDAY) ISSUED AT 227 PM CDT FRI JUL 3 2015 576DM LOW OVER NW INDIANA WAS SEEN ON WVAPOR/MODEL OVERLAY WITH A LOBE EXTENDING SW ACROSS MO/IL...HELPING TO TRIGGER HEAT OF THE DAY CONVECTION ONCE AGAIN ACROSS THE REGION. WEAK SHEAR AND MARGINAL LAPSE RATES MEANS LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN SHOULD BE THE PRIMARY HAZARDS. ACTIVITY EXPECTED TO DIMINISH FROM NW TO SE TONIGHT. WEAK HIGH PRESSURE BUILDS IN FOR SATURDAY. THERE MAY BE ENOUGH LINGERING LOW LEVEL MOISTURE FOR ISOLD CONVECTION SRN SECTIONS MAINLY IN THE AFTERNOON. THE NAM WAS THROWN OUT FOR SAT NIGHT AS IT SEEMS TOO SLOW WITH A WEAK SRN H5 LOW...AND HOLDING MOISTURE BACK INTO OUR SE COUNTIES. SHOULD BE A MAINLY DRY SATURDAY NIGHT FOLLOWING THE EC/GFS SOLUTIONS. AGAIN JUST A SLIM CHANCE OF CONVECTION S/SE COUNTIES SUNDAY WHERE MARGINAL MOISTURE WILL LINGER. TEMPS ONCE AGAIN A BLEND OF MOS AND EXISTING NUMBERS. .LONG TERM...(SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY) ISSUED AT 227 PM CDT FRI JUL 3 2015 USED A BLEND OF THE EC/GFS THROUGH WEDNESDAY NIGHT...THEN A GEFS/ECENS/NAEFS BLEND FOR THURSDAY THROUGH FRIDAY. SUNDAY NIGHT SHOULD BE DRY...MONDAY MORNING PERHAPS AS WELL...WITH POPS INCREASING FROM SW TO NE WITH TIME. SIGNAL FOR DECENT CONVECTIVE CHANCES AND QPF SEEMS TO BE TUESDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY AS A FRONTAL BOUNDARY SAGS SOUTH INTO THE AREA AND EITHER SLOWS DOWN OR STALLS. WOULD NOT RULE OUT HAVING TO DEAL WITH HEAVY RAIN ONCE AGAIN. TIMING MAY EVENTUALLY BE ADJUSTED ALONG WITH THE WINDOW OF BEST OPPORTUNITY. AFTER THAT...THE ECENS LOOKED MORE LIKE THE GEFS AND EVEN OPERATIONAL GFS...KEEPING MORE OF A SOUTHERLY FLOW REGIME ACROSS THE AREA...AND NOT AS AGGRESSIVE WITH THE PERSISTENT NW FLOW ALOFT. POPS MUCH LOWER THURSDAY THROUGH FRIDAY GIVEN LOWER CONFIDENCE AND FORECAST LACK OF FRONTAL FOCUS. && .AVIATION... ISSUED AT 1216 PM CDT FRI JUL 3 2015 WITH A FRONTAL BOUNDARY JUST SOUTH OF THE TAF SITES COMBINED WITH A SERIES OF UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCES MOVING THROUGH THE AREA...MVFR CIGS/VSBYS AND VCSH/TSRA POSSIBLE THROUGH LATE AFTERNOON...THEN GRADUALLY BECOMING VFR. LIGHT AND VARIABLE WINDS. COULD SEE SOME FOG DEVELOPMENT BY EARLY TOMORROW MORNING AS WELL. && .PAH WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... IL...NONE. MO...NONE. IN...NONE. KY...NONE. &&
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PADUCAH KY 333 AM CDT FRI JUL 3 2015 ILZ075>078-080>094-INZ081-082-085>088-KYZ001>022-MOZ076-086-087- 100-107>112-114-041000- JEFFERSON-WAYNE IL-EDWARDS-WABASH-PERRY IL-FRANKLIN-HAMILTON- WHITE-JACKSON-WILLIAMSON-SALINE-GALLATIN-UNION IL-JOHNSON-POPE- HARDIN-ALEXANDER-PULASKI-MASSAC-GIBSON-PIKE-POSEY-VANDERBURGH- WARRICK-SPENCER-FULTON-HICKMAN-CARLISLE-BALLARD-MCCRACKEN-GRAVES- LIVINGSTON-MARSHALL-CALLOWAY-CRITTENDEN-LYON-TRIGG-CALDWELL- UNION KY-WEBSTER-HOPKINS-CHRISTIAN-HENDERSON-DAVIESS-MCLEAN- MUHLENBERG-TODD-PERRY MO-BOLLINGER-CAPE GIRARDEAU-WAYNE MO-CARTER- RIPLEY-BUTLER-STODDARD-SCOTT-MISSISSIPPI-NEW MADRID- 333 AM CDT FRI JUL 3 2015 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS...SOUTHWEST INDIANA...WESTERN KENTUCKY AND SOUTHEAST MISSOURI. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT THUNDERSTORMS ARE POSSIBLE TODAY AND TONIGHT...WITH THE GREATEST CHANCES NEAR THE ARKANSAS AND TENNESSEE BORDERS. LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN AND LIGHTNING WILL BE THE PRIMARY HAZARDS. FLOODING CONTINUES ON AREA RIVERS. REFER TO THE WARNINGS AND STATEMENTS FOR DETAILS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY WITH THE EXCEPTION OF SUNDAY NIGHT...THUNDERSTORMS ARE POSSIBLE OVER ALL OR PART OF THE OUTLOOK AREA THROUGH THE PERIOD. LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL AND DEADLY LIGHTNING APPEAR TO BE THE PRIMARY THREATS AT THIS TIME. FLOODING CONTINUES ON AREA RIVERS. REFER TO THE WARNINGS AND STATEMENTS FOR DETAILS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED. JP
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PADUCAH KY
1048 AM CDT FRI JUL 03 2015
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
1046 AM FLASH FLOOD CERULEAN 36.96N 87.71W
07/03/2015 TRIGG KY EMERGENCY MNGR
NEARLY 6 INCHES OF RAIN MEASURED BY PUBLIC THURSDAY.
STANDING WATER IN NUMEROUS FIELDS. WATER WENT OVER
SEVERAL ROADS AS WELL THURSDAY.
&&
CTNThe Ft Campbell radar (KHPX), 48 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:44 UTC.
2 flash flood, 1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.
U.S. Highway 41 was impassable near Crofton due to flash flooding. Six inches of water was flowing over Highway 800 near Crofton and Highway 107 southeast of Crofton. Radar estimated up to three inches of rain fell in three hours.
A series of thunderstorms produced rainfall rates estimated by radar up to three inches in two hours. A car was swept off Highway 140 West by rapidly flowing floodwater. The vehicle was found about two hours later, submerged in a deep ditch with rapidly flowing water. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene. Just prior to the fatality, the fire department had assisted another vehicle stranded in floodwaters in the same vicinity. In other parts of Daviess County, sections of U.S. Highway 431 and Kentucky Highway 81 were closed due to high water.
Minor flooding occurred along the Green River. Bottomland fields were underwater.
As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.
| Event | Date | Age | Sex | Where | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood, Daviess | 2015-07-03 | 57 | Female | Vehicle/Towed Trailer | Direct |
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Kentucky in 2015Every state in 2015This day in weather historyWarnings in Kentucky, July 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: 588933, 588935, 589185.