Rainfall of 6 to more than 8 inches in southern Indiana from the 13th through the 15th caused lowland river flooding along portions of the White River in southwest Indiana. August 2016 was the wettest August of record for many areas of Indiana.
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.
Rainfall of 6 to more than 8 inches in southern Indiana from the 13th through the 15th caused lowland river flooding along portions of the White River in southwest Indiana. August 2016 was the wettest August of record for many areas of Indiana.
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 Aug 16, 6:34 AM EST, 6 hours 26 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Paducah KY 634 AM CDT TUE AUG 16 2016 .SHORT TERM...(Today through Thursday night) Issued at 349 AM CDT Tue Aug 16 2016 Given the cancellation of the Flash Flood Watch this morning, adjusted the order of product dissemination to reflect the change in status before issuing this forecast discussion. With the departure of the circulation that generated the significant flooding in Louisiana over the weekend, the general flow has become more broad scale (sub-synoptic) during the overnight hours. With the absence of sharpened mesoscale boundaries and forcing, the rainfall rates over the former flash flood watch area should be much less this morning. HRRR guidance suggests some diurnal instability changes through the middle morning hours that may enhance rainfall rates in the 0.25-0.75"/hr range, but most of this should be outside of the zones of heavy precipitation in Southern Illinois. In collaboration with surrounding NWS offices, it was decided to cancel the Flash Flood Watch short of the 7 am CDT expiration time this morning. Strangely, the short and medium range guidance appeared to be suffering from some initialization issues. A south-southeastward adjustment of some 60 nm was made in the PoP/Weather fields of the ECMWF and Canadian guidance (which better initialized with 00z observation data) and blended with the existing gridded forecast. The net result is a more progressive movement of the mean southwest to northeast oriented low amplitude trough axis over the Northern U.S. The effective movement of the trough axis will still lead to a lingering chance of rain south and east of the Ohio River through Wednesday. The expansion of the Southeast ridge westward to the Lower Mississippi Valley and the movement of a ridge axis into the Desert Southwest and northern Mexico will impress the development of low to mid-level circulation in TX and AR, muddling the southeastward translation of moisture away from the WFO PAH forecast area. With the WFO PAH forecast on the dividing line of split flow regime, enough instability and shear will be in place to keep at least a small chance of showers and thunderstorms across the area through Thursday. With the faster flow and focus of higher precipitable waters away from the area, flooding potential will be minimized. .LONG TERM...(Friday through Monday) Issued at 349 AM CDT Tue Aug 16 2016 South winds at the surface and weak ridging aloft can be expected to begin the extended portion of the forecast. To our northwest upper- level energy will stream southward into/through Montana Friday into Saturday. The crux of our forecast is to what extent this energy will phase with a larger-scale trough over Hudson Bay as we head through the weekend and into next week. The 00Z GFS has trended away from its more phased solution in previous runs. Meanwhile the 00Z ECMWF has trended slower, but still has a pretty well-phased trough now moving through on Sunday, rather than Saturday. The 00Z GEM has maintained the previous phasing and timing. The 00Z GFS Ensemble Mean seems to support the operational GFS pretty well, so we will not be able to completely disregard the GFS trend. Look for daily chances of thunderstorms through the period, with the best chances over the weekend. Heavy rainfall will be the primary concern, but if the stronger trough/frontal passage occurs, there will be a decent severe weather threat near and ahead of the front. As for temperatures, highs will be at or below normal through the period and trending cooler into next week. Lows will start out above normal and trend cooler into next week. && .AVIATION... Issued at 634 AM CDT Tue Aug 16 2016 With the broad swatch of light to moderate precipitation, the WFO PAH TAF sites will deal with MVFR to VFR ceilings and visibilities. The main drop into IFR/LIFR categories will occur with the first onset of rain this morning, then again following the movement of the rain east of each of the TAF sites during the second half of the forecast period, mainly after 00z-03z time period. && .PAH Watches/Warnings/Advisories... IL...None. MO...None. IN...None. KY...None. && SHORT TERM...Smith LONG TERM...DRS AVIATION...Smith
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PADUCAH KY 359 AM CDT TUE AUG 16 2016 ILZ075>078-080>094-INZ081-082-085>088-KYZ001>022-MOZ076-086-087- 100-107>112-114-171000- JEFFERSON-WAYNE IL-EDWARDS-WABASH-PERRY IL-FRANKLIN-HAMILTON- WHITE-JACKSON-WILLIAMSON-SALINE-GALLATIN-UNION-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- 359 AM CDT TUE AUG 16 2016 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS...SOUTHWEST INDIANA...WESTERN KENTUCKY AND SOUTHEAST MISSOURI. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT A FEW STORMS MAY APPROACH SEVERE LIMITS WITH THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS IN EXCESS OF 40 MPH...MAINLY OVER WEST KENTUCKY...EAST OF THE LAND BETWEEN THE LAKES...THIS AFTERNOON. TORRENTIAL DOWNPOURS WILL ALSO BE POSSIBLE IN THE SAME AREA. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY DAILY CHANCES OF THUNDERSTORMS ARE FORECAST THROUGH THE PERIOD. HEAVY RAINFALL AND LIGHTNING WILL BE THE PRIMARY CONCERNS...ALTHOUGH A FEW STRONG TO SEVERE STORMS CANNOT BE RULED OUT WITH A COLD FRONT SATURDAY OR SUNDAY. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED AT THIS TIME. SMITH/DRS
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PADUCAH KY
1204 PM CDT TUE AUG 16 2016
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
1053 AM HEAVY RAIN DONIPHAN 36.62N 90.82W
08/15/2016 M12.14 INCH RIPLEY MO OTHER FEDERAL
FOUR DAY RAINFALL TOTAL
&&
BP2PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PADUCAH KY
1206 PM CDT TUE AUG 16 2016
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0700 AM HEAVY RAIN 5 WNW ELLSINORE 36.96N 90.83W
08/16/2016 M9.68 INCH CARTER MO COCORAHS
FOUR DAY RAINFALL TOTAL
&&
BP2PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...CORRECTED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PADUCAH KY
1207 PM CDT TUE AUG 16 2016
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
1053 AM HEAVY RAIN DONIPHAN 36.62N 90.82W
08/15/2016 M10.84 INCH RIPLEY MO OTHER FEDERAL
72 HOUR RAINFALL TOTAL
&&
BP2PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PADUCAH KY
1209 PM CDT TUE AUG 16 2016
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0655 AM HEAVY RAIN MOUNT VERNON 38.32N 88.91W
08/16/2016 M8.83 INCH JEFFERSON IL AWOS
FOUR DAY RAINFALL TOTAL
&&
BP2PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PADUCAH KY
1213 PM CDT TUE AUG 16 2016
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0700 AM HEAVY RAIN 3 NE MOUNT VERNON 38.35N 88.87W
08/16/2016 M8.93 INCH JEFFERSON IL CO-OP OBSERVER
FOUR DAY RAINFALL TOTAL
&&
BP2PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PADUCAH KY
1215 PM CDT TUE AUG 16 2016
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0500 PM HEAVY RAIN MARBLE HILL 37.30N 89.98W
08/15/2016 M8.00 INCH BOLLINGER MO CO-OP OBSERVER
72 HOUR RAINFALL TOTAL
&&
BP2The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
2 flood. Local standard time, as filed.
Minor flooding occurred on the White River. Some low agricultural land and low oil fields were flooded.
Minor flooding occurred on the White River. Some low-lying fields and woodlands were underwater, as well as a few local roads.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Indiana in 2016Every state in 2016This day in weather historyWarnings in Indiana, August 2016
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: 654130, 654129.