Flooding in Tennessee

By Scott Bachmeier • 28 March 2021

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images, with hourly Precipitation Type plotted in cyan [click to play animation | MP4]

Hourly images of the MIMIC TPW product (below) showed the northward surge of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico beginning early on 27 March, providing an environment conducive to heavy rainfall.

MIMIC TPW product [click to play animation | MP4]

Plots of Nashville rawinsonde data from 00 UTC and 12 UTC on 27 March [click to enlarge]

Plots of Nashville rawinsonde data from 00 UTC and 12 UTC on 28 March [click to enlarge]

Here are some of our highest rainfall reports from Saturday morning through this morning and a map of combined radar estimates and observed precip. https://t.co/H9DHgOxCZW pic.twitter.com/Hk8qMxcRc3

— NWS Nashville (@NWSNashville) March 28, 2021

Nashville has measured another 0.94″ of rain since midnight. This gives us a 2-day rainfall total of 6.69″. This surpasses the 6.68″ measured on September 13-14, 1979, and gives us our 2nd largest 2-day rainfall total in Nashville’s history, trailing only May 1-2, 2010 (13.57″).

— NWS Nashville (@NWSNashville) March 28, 2021

CMORPH estimates of accumulated precipitation (available in RealEarth) are shown below, with 24-hour totals ending 23:59 on 27 March (left) and 28 March (right).  The darker purple region denotes totals of >100 mm in 24 hours.

24-hour precipitation totals ending 23:59 on 27 March (left) and at 23:59 28 March (right) 2021 (Click to enlarge)

Categories: GOES-16, Heavy rain / flooding, Microwave