RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR) - More than two dozen people were safely rescued after flash flooding in and around Roanoke Wednesday. Four inches of rain fell in just one hour there! Multiple roads were closed as the water rapidly rose and city drainage systems simply could not handle that vast amount of water in so short a time.
In Richmond, our rounds of heavy rainfall were spread out over more hours, giving the metro areas more time to send the water through the drainage systems properly. But we still set a new daily record rainfall for July 10 at Richmond International Airport. At the rain gauge there, 1.84 inches of rain fell, breaking the old record of 1.36 inches from that date in 2012. So two years in a row, on the exact same date, we set new rainfall records! If you include the late-night storms and rain that moved through the metro until 2 a.m. in Richmond, our storm total since yesterday is up to 1.92 inches.
More heavy downpours are possible today, which is why there is a Flash Flood Watch for southwest Virginia from 10 a.m. Thursday through 8 a.m. Friday.
Meteorologist Carrie Rose
"Like" Carrie on Facebook
Follow Carrie on Twitter
