A series of heavy rainfall events in mid and late May caused the Ohio River to rise back above flood stage.
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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.
A series of heavy rainfall events in mid and late May caused the Ohio River to rise back above flood stage.
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 May 24, 2:10 AM CST, 1 hour 50 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Paducah KY 310 AM CDT Sun May 24 2020 .SHORT TERM...(Today through Tuesday night) Issued at 310 AM CDT Sun May 24 2020 A weak upper-level disturbance in the vicinity of the Missouri Bootheel early this morning has kept some scattered showers going for much of the night. The associated mid and high clouds may hold down heating and thus surface destabilization today, but the associated lift will likely overcome the lack of heating. There is a good signal for deep convection to develop possibly by Noon over southeast Missouri. It should develop northeast into the early afternoon and build eastward through the late afternoon and early evening. The 00Z NAM develops over 3000J/kg of SBCAPE throughout the region, but struggles to generate convection despite there being no cap to deal with. Its SBCAPE is likely overdone, given the expected early start to diurnal convection. Wind fields are weak through the column, so these should be pulsy storms. However, given the amount of instability, and rather steep mid and low- level lapse rates, we cannot completely rule out an isolated strong storm producing damaging winds. Locally heavy rainfall and lightning will be the primary concerns today. A few storms may linger into the evening over the eastern half of the region. There is some potential that southeast Missouri and southwest Illinois may keep enough moisture around 850mb to support isolated elevated convection overnight tonight. Guidance indicates that there should be more sunshine on Monday, Memorial Day. With rather steep mid-level lapse rates and no cap, we should have no problem developing diurnal convection perhaps as early as Noon in some locations. Once again there will be no shear, so we would expect the same threats as today. Given the amount of instability, this could be one of those days where storms bounce around all day on outflows, until all of the SBCAPE has been chewed up. If for whatever reason, storms do not proliferate Monday, it will be quite hot and humid with heat indices likely reaching at least 90 over most of the region. Cloud cover is expected to hold down temperatures Tuesday, but there are signs of another mid/upper-level disturbance in our vicinity. Similar to today, the lift is likely to overcome the relative lack of heating to support a decent coverage of diurnal convection. Our PoPs seem a bit high, but we cannot argue with them too much. With the disturbance lingering in the area some convection could linger well into the Tuesday night period. With no surface boundaries or wind shear to organize the convection today through Tuesday, heavy rainfall is likely to be rather isolated across the region. However, with decent coverage of convection expected each afternoon, some at least isolated flooding could develop in areas that get hit with heavy rainfall on successive days. .LONG TERM...(Wednesday through Saturday) Issued at 310 AM CDT Sun May 24 2020 By the middle of the week, a cut-off low will be stranded over the southern Plains, while an Omega block sets up along the Eastern Seaboard. Weak disturbances rotating around the southern Plains low will provide a source of lift for convection, and the Omega block will funnel warm, moist, and moderately unstable air from the Gulf of Mexico into the forecast area. With the jet stream displaced to the north across southern Canada, this synoptic configuration will be slow to change. The end result will be a daily chance of thunderstorms, mainly during the heat of the day. Tried to taper the NBM POPs to reflect this diurnal TSRA trend. This resulted in high chance/likely POPs during the daytime hours Wednesday through Friday, and isolated to low chance POPs overnight. By Friday into Saturday, a cold front will try to clear the forecast area, although it may stall along the AR/TN border through next weekend. Therefore, accepted the NBM solution of low chance POPs for next Saturday and Sunday. Temperatures will be seasonably warm for late spring, with highs in the lower to middle 80s and overnight lows in the middle to upper 60s. Dew point temperatures will be seasonable muggy as well, with values generally in the middle to upper 60s. && .AVIATION... Issued at 1132 PM CDT Sat May 23 2020 The cloud and/or ceiling forecast for the 06Z Sunday WFO PAH TAF issuance in the near term (next 6 hours) is focused on cloud cover generated by northward moving thunderstorms over west Tennessee, lifted by a small low/vort max moving up the Missouri Bootheel and the southeast Missouri Delta region. Manually adjusted the KPAH TAF to add a brief mention of light rain through 09z. Going into daytime hours on Sunday, left the mention of vicinity showers or thunderstorms in place, as any triggering mechanism for organized convection remains questionable, especially during the morning hours. Confidence remains low with respect to afternoon shower and thunderstorm coverage near each TAF site, so left vicinity mention of convection in place. Since most activity should be diurnal, dropped overall mention of precipitation after 00z Monday. At this point, kept VFR conditions in place for the 06z Sunday TAF issuance. && .PAH WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... IL...None. MO...None. IN...None. KY...None. && SHORT TERM...DRS LONG TERM...DWS AVIATION...Smith
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service Paducah KY 331 AM CDT Sun May 24 2020 ILZ075>078-080>094-INZ081-082-085>088-KYZ001>022-MOZ076-086-087- 100-107>112-114-251000- 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- 331 AM CDT Sun May 24 2020 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for portions of southern Illinois, southwest Indiana, western Kentucky, and southeast Missouri. .DAY ONE...Today and Tonight Scattered thunderstorms are expected throughout the region this afternoon. A few storms may linger through the night mainly over southeast Missouri and southern Illinois. Locally heavy rainfall and lightning will be the primary concerns, but a stray strong storm could produce some isolated damaging winds in the heat of the day. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Monday through Saturday Scattered to numerous thunderstorms are expected each afternoon through the week. Locally heavy rainfall and lightning will be the primary concerns, but an isolated strong storm could produce damaging winds. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotter activation is not anticipated. DRS/DWS
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.
Flooding of the Ohio River was minor, consisting of flooded fields, low-lying access roads, and some riverside parkland. Some minor crop damage likely occurred.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Kentucky in 2020Every state in 2020This day in weather historyWarnings in Kentucky, May 2020
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: 885746.