Thunderstorms Produce Heavy Rainfall & Flash Flooding on April 3rd

Clusters of showers and thunderstorms began affecting central and eastern Kentucky during the pre-dawn hours of Friday April 3rd.  The initial complex of thunderstorms targeted areas from Louisville across the Bluegrass Region in parts of east-central Kentucky, including the Natural Bridge State Park area.  While these storms were not severe, they did produce gusty winds which downed a dead tree onto a camping site in the Middle Fork Campground killing a female camper and severely injuring another person. 

Torrential rainfall occurred with the storms, with many locations in a stripe from Estill, Powell, Lee, Wolfe and Breathitt Counties seeing from three to four inches of rain during the morning storms.  This caused widespread flash flooding and a Lee County woman was killed as she tried to drive through flood waters. 

After a brief break, additional showers and thunderstorms targeted locations from Lexington eastward along I-64 into the Gateway Region Friday evening.  This again caused widespread flash flooding in a stripe from Montgomery, Bath, Rowan and Elliott Counties.

The maps below show how much rain fell based on an array of automated and human read rain gauges. 

Below is a listing of storm total rainfall amounts for several east Kentucky observing locations...

ID    : Station Name (County)       Pcpn
CRLK2 : Cave Run Lake (Rowan)       5.78
CSYK2 : Cressy (Estill)             5.35
BCAK2 : Beattyville 4n (Lee)        4.63
SDHK2 : Sandy Hook (Elliott)        4.63
STAK2 : Stanton 2W (Powell)         4.63
MRHDKY: Morehead 4NE (Rowan)        4.52
PRSTKY: Owingsville 4S (Bath)       4.51
JKL   : NWS Jackson (Breathitt)     4.50
KYRW03: Morehead 6.4NE (Rowan)      4.30
CAVK2 : Clover Bottom (Jackson)     4.29
QKSDKY: Jackson 3SE (Breathitt)     3.95
GIMK2 : Gimlet (Elliott)            3.92
TRMK2 : Triangle Mtn (Rowan)        3.84
FLEK2 : Flemingsburg 2N (Fleming)   3.59
KOMK2 : Koomer Ridge (Wolfe)        3.45
WELK2 : Wellington (Menifee)        3.13
EZLK2 : Ezel (Morgan)               3.06
PELK2 : Prestonsburg 3WSW (Floyd)   2.87
WLBTKY: West Liberty 2SW (Morgan)   2.85
INEK2 : Inez 2E (Martin)            2.54
BSAK2 : Big Sandy Apt (Martin)      2.48
BTCKKY: Paintsville 4W (Johnson)    2.42
PNVK2 : Paintsville 1E (Johnson)    2.39
BNVLKY: Booneville 2S (Owsley)      2.38
MTVK2 : Mount Vernon (Rockcastle)   2.21
KYBE01: Talbert 2ESE (Breathitt)    2.20
VESTKY: Hindman 5N (Knott)          2.12
SSTK2 : Somerset 2N (Pulaski)       2.12
KYRC02: Brodhead 7SSW (Rockcastle)  2.07
FLRKKY: Whitley City 3N (McCreary)  1.72
BUCK2 : Buckhorn Lake (Perry)       1.71
OLINKY: McKee 5S (Jackson)          1.69
ICYK2 : Island City (Owsley)        1.64
BMBLKY: Barbourville 3E (Knox)      1.57
WWPK2 : Williamsburg 1NW (Whitley)  1.48
CHTK2 : Peabody RAWS (Clay)         1.37
BUNK2 : Bunch (Laurel)              1.35
DORTKY: Pikeville 13S (Pike)        1.34
SOMK2 : Somerset (Pulaski)          1.32
EKQ   : Monticello AWOS (Wayne)     1.28
BXTK2 : Baxter (Harlan)             1.16
KYWY01: Monticello 9W (Wayne)       1.12
LOZ   : London Corbin Apt (Laurel)  1.05
SKLK2 : Skyline (Letcher)           0.92
CFLK2 : Carr Creek Lake (Knott)     0.92
WHBK2 : Whitesburg 2SE (Letcher)    0.82
WTBGKY: Whitesburg 2NW (Letcher)    0.70
WHTK2 : Whitesburg (Letcher)        0.66