A cold front moved southeast across the lower Ohio Valley on the 9th, accompanied by a band of heavy rainfall. The heavy rain occurred under southwest flow associated with a broad 500 mb trough extending from the upper Mississippi Valley to the southern Plains.
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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 cold front moved southeast across the lower Ohio Valley on the 9th, accompanied by a band of heavy rainfall. The heavy rain occurred under southwest flow associated with a broad 500 mb trough extending from the upper Mississippi Valley to the southern Plains. Pockets of road flooding occurred in the Pennyrile region of western Kentucky. The Little River and Green River both rose above flood stage. Flooding on both rivers was minor.
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 Jan 9, 6:13 AM CST, 2 hours 47 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Paducah KY 613 AM CST Sun Jan 9 2022 .UPDATE... Issued at 613 AM CST Sun Jan 9 2022 Updated aviation section for 12z TAF package issuance. && .SHORT TERM...(Today through Tuesday night) Issued at 316 AM CST Sun Jan 9 2022 Latest surface analysis shows a cold front extending from just south of KSTL to just west of the PAH forecast area into north central Arkansas. Based on its current movement, it should be east of the PAH fa by 14z. Numerous showers, briefly moderate to heavy at times, will continue ahead of the front, with isolated thunderstorms mainly across west Kentucky into extreme southeast Missouri. Showers will end from northwest to southeast through the morning, possibly lingering into the early afternoon in portions of the Pennyrile region. After early morning highs in the middle 40s to lower 50s, temperatures will be dropping through the day as much colder air follows the front. Temperatures by sunset will be in the lower to middle 30s. Skies will clear out tonight. Temperatures will drop into the middle teens to around 20 degrees. Surface high pressure will slide southeast out of the northern Plains into the middle Mississippi and lower Ohio valleys by Monday night. West to northwest flow will keep temperatures well below normal despite plentiful sunshine. High Monday will be in the middle 30s northeast to middle 40s southwest. Lows Monday night will again drop into the middle teens to around 20 degrees. As the surface high pushes east of our region, winds will become southerly. Temperatures will remain below normal Tuesday with similar readings to Monday, but will moderate Tuesday night into the upper 20s to around 30 degrees. .LONG TERM...(Wednesday through Saturday) Issued at 316 AM CST Sun Jan 9 2022 Unlike the Saturday morning ensemble model runs, the GEFS/ECMWF/CMC QPF and height fields are more variable with each member. However, there is a sufficient enough signal from each ensemble model output to at least support chance PoPs Friday into Saturday. The timing has been at least consistent for this next weather system the last few model cycles, with the NBM initialization providing a good compromise. The deterministic guidance appears to utilize a strong shortwave diving south into the central Plains, then rotating through the WFO PAH forecast area on Friday and Saturday. The deterministic GFS is the most progressive with this wave and further to the south than the ECMWF/CMC guidance. The ECMWF is the slowest and deepens the low across the WFO PAH forecast area. The CMC is a little faster and also deepens the low near the WFO PAH forecast area on Friday. The degree of ageostrophic response and moisture advection is variable with each of the models, so am ok with just chance PoPs for this event, along with marginal instability/CAPE. Backed off slightly on temperatures for Friday and Saturday, dropping max/min temperatures by 1-2 degrees from Saturday's forecast. Utilized a mix of the Canadian and NBM guidance for temperatures during the extended forecast time period. Not extremely confident on any diurnal mixed precipitation potential, but will leave a mention in Saturday morning/evening for collaboration purposes. && .AVIATION... Issued at 613 AM CST Sun Jan 9 2022 Cigs will continue to bounce between MVFR and LIFR at KPAH/KEVV/KOWB/KMVN through 18-20z, then cigs will improve to VFR. Vsbys will vary between VFR and IFR at KPAH/KEVV/KOWB/KCGI with light to moderate showers, which will end from west to east between 14z-18z. VFR conditions are expected from 21z through the end of the TAF period. Variable winds around 5 kts will become northwest to north at 10-18kts with gusts up to around 25 kts by 15-17z with the passage of a cold front. Winds will decrease to 5-10 kts after 00z. && .PAH WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... IL...None. MO...None. IN...None. KY...None. && SHORT TERM...RST LONG TERM...Smith AVIATION...RST
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service Paducah KY 424 AM CST Sun Jan 9 2022 ILZ075>078-080>094-INZ081-082-085>088-KYZ001>022-MOZ076-086-087- 100-107>112-114-101100- 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- 424 AM CST Sun Jan 9 2022 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for portions of southern Illinois, southwest Indiana, western Kentucky, and southeast Missouri. .DAY ONE...Today and Tonight Isolated thunderstorms are possible through late morning, mainly across west Kentucky and extreme southeast Missouri, with locally heavy rainfall and winds gusting to around 30 mph the main concerns. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Monday through Saturday No hazardous weather is expected at this time. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotter activation will not be needed.
The Paducah radar (KPAH), 28 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 14:58 UTC.
6 flood, 1 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.
U.S. Highway 62 was closed in the West Fork Creek Bottoms area between Highway 121 and Bardwell. A couple other flood-prone state roads were closed.
Kentucky Route 1949 was closed at the Interstate 69 tunnel. This is a flood-prone location. Kentucky 1462 was closed at the Clarks River, which is a frequent occurrence.
Minor flooding occurred on the Green River. Low-lying farmland and fields along the river were flooded, as well as some river access roads.
Minor flooding occurred on the Green River. Low-lying farmland and fields were flooded, as well as some river access roads and public recreational land.
Island Creek rose out of its banks on the south side of Paducah. The flooding was due to a combination of heavy rain on the 9th and backwater from the rising Ohio River. A street intersection in the flood plain was the site of a mishap involving a school bus. The bus drove into the flooded area, possibly due to the removal of barricades by an unauthorized person. The bus listed to one side, and one student was injured. This incident occurred on the 11th.
Minor flooding occurred on the south fork of the Little River. Farmland in the vicinity of the river was flooded. Street flooding began in Hopkinsville.
Emergency management in Todd County reported some flooding over roadways. Between 2 and 4 inches of rain fell.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Kentucky in 2022Every state in 2022This day in weather historyWarnings in Kentucky, January 2022
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: 999550, 999555, 998732, 998734, 1000620, 998728, 999544.