April 1, 2021 - Flooding in Tennessee

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    Tennessee Flooding
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   Severe storms crossed Tennessee on March 27, 2021, battering the state
   with heavy rain and high wind, and sparking tornado and flood warnings.
   The deluge was so heavy that severe flash flooding was reported in
   several areas. On March 30, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency
   (TEMA) reported that seven weather-related deaths had been confirmed.
   Flash Flood Watches continued across most of the state on that date and
   several highways continued to be closed due to high water. Shelters
   remained open in Campbell, Davidson, Hardeman, Rutherford, Sullivan,
   and Wilson counties.

   The extreme weather was just part of a sweeping system that affected a
   swath from East Texas to Tennessee—the National Weather Service
   received reports of 16 tornados, 140 reports of large hail, and 100
   reports of wind damage from the southeast from March 27-28. In
   Tennessee, the hardest-hit area appears to be Davidson County, where
   the city of Nashville reported substantial flooding, damage, and power
   outages after recording 7.01 inches from the afternoon of March 27 to
   the morning of March 28. This is the second-largest two-day rainfall
   total on record for that location.

   Although rain has continued over parts of Tennessee through March 31,
   most rivers have crested and flooding risk is reduced. Colder weather
   has brought snow to some parts of the state as of March 31. According
   to the National Weather Service, Nashville Tennessee, as of 5:30 p.m.
   on March 31 the rainfall for the month has reached 12.28 inches. That’s
   just 0.08 inches short of the all-time high rainfall record for March
   (12.35 in) set in 1975.

   On March 29, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)
   on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a false-color image centered
   on the state of Tennessee. Also visible are parts of southern Kentucky
   (north), Mississippi (southwest), and Alabama (south). This image uses
   both visible and infrared light (MODIS Bands 7,2,1) to highlights
   water. Here, water appears dark blue and contrasts sharply with
   vegetation (green) and open land (tan).

   The major river visible is the Tennessee River, which rises in the east
   at the confluence of the French Broad and Holston Rivers in Knoxville.
   The Tennessee flows southwest, crossing into Alabama and traveling west
   to form part of the Alabama/Mississippi border before returning to
   Tennessee then flowing into Kentucky, where it meets the Ohio River.
   Most of the flood damage, however, was reported near Nashville, which
   sits along the Cumberland River. Dale Hollow Lake, which straddles
   Kentucky and Tennessee, can be seen in the upper right corner of the
   image. From Dale Hollow Lake, the Cumberland River meanders generally
   westward. Nashville sits near the center of the image, where the
   Cumberland narrows and just northeast of the large J Percy Priest Lake.

   While this one image clearly illustrates high water in many areas, to
   gain a fuller sense of the change brought by the rain, it is helpful to
   compare a Terra MODIS image acquired prior to the flood with this one.
   Thanks to the NASA Worldview App, such comparisons are easy. To compare
   this image, acquired on March 29, with one acquired on March 7, click
    here.

   Image Facts
   Satellite:  Terra
   Date Acquired: 3/29/2021
   Resolutions:  1km (397.4 KB),  500m (1 MB),  250m (651.3 KB)
   Bands Used: 7,2,1
   Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2021-04-01
 
