Nelson County, Virginia
What a weekend! At least part of it. Partly Sunny skies turned to a deluge of rain Saturday night with some locations in Greenfield getting 11 inches of rain in under 6 hours. The Idlebrink Farm gauge in Greenfield reported 8.23 inches before midnight Saturday and another 2.79 by 4:30 PM on Sunday. Here at NCL just a couple miles away we totaled just 5.59″ as of 4:30 PM Sunday. Still a lot of rain in a short time, but nothing like 11! Believe it or not there were portions of Nelson without any rain.
With that much water pouring in such a short span of time, obviously many roads were washed out. Nelson Emergency Services Coordinator, Ray Uttaro said at one point 10 homes were inaccessible in the Duncan Hollow and Hill Hollow areas off of Route 6. Some were not accessible due to floodwater, other because the roads were washed out. Numerous reports of culverts being blown out from flooding were also emailed to NCL.
A Flash Flood Watch continues until 11PM Sunday evening in Nelson due to the potential of more heavy rain.
We understand NOAA has placed the VA Emergency Management Division in charge of reporting the rainfall gauges on the Eastern Slopes. We used to access the AFWS or Automated Flood Warning System to determine how much rain fell in the Nelson County area. We are avid river runners and the Tye is #1 as are the great folks in Nelson County. Do you guys have any knowledge of an accesable real time rain gauge site in your area?
Please advise if you get a second. Thanks!
Same here Ben. We noticed the online link for the Nelson gauges went away about 5-6 months ago, and we haven’t been able to find them since. Tommy