Historic Flooding in Middle/Western Tennessee

ecords have been broken as a result of the historic flooding which has placed many parts of Nashville, Jackson and Memphis completely under water during the first weekend of May. Many locations have reported at least 10" of rain during this weekend.

Here are the totals from CoCoRaHs station TN-SR-55 at Highland Academy:

• 8am Friday - 8am Saturday: 1.74" (During this time period, it only started raining at 5:30am with a major thunderstorm. So this precipitation figure represents almost three hours of rainfall)
• 8am Saturday - 8am Sunday: 6.14"
• 8am Sunday - 8am Monday: 3.37" (Rain finally quit in the evening)
• GRAND TOTAL AT HIGHLAND - 11.25"

WORTHY BIZARRE NOTES FROM THIS STORM SYSTEM (Information provided by the National Weather Service):

• While Nashville experienced record rainfall, Chattanooga completely dodged the bullet on Friday, Saturday & most of Sunday with significantly less effects experienced and felt just a couple hundred miles away.
• The Cumberland River in Nashville was forecast to crest at 50 feet. Flood stage is 40 feet. This is the highest the river has ever crested since a dam was constructed in the early '60s to control major flooding. The three most significant flood events in the history of the Cumberland River was 56.2 feet in 1929 (before flood control), and 47.6 feet in 1975 (after flood control).
• The record for the most rainfall on any given 'May 2' was broken at the Nashville International Airport with 7.25" of rain. The previous May 2 record was 1.69" set in 1922.
• The 3rd greatest one-day rainfall total in Nashville's history is now May 1, 2010 with 6.32". The NUMBER ONE greatest one-day rainfall total in Nashville's history is now May 2, 2010 with 7.25".
• The two-day rainfall total for Nashville is now13.57", which DOUBLES the previous two-day record of 6.68" back in September 1979.
• The record for the greatest rainfall ever recorded in a six-hour period was broken on May 2 with a grand total of 5.57"...and the record for the greatest rainfall ever recorded in a twelve-hour period was also broken with a grand total of 7.20".

• Their was a time on Saturday where three major interstate systems were completely shut down because of flooding. I-40 was closed in both directions near Hwy. 840, I-65 was closed in both directions south of Nashville and I-24 was shut down in both directions at Bell Road. Interstates in Nashville Metro were shut down again on Sunday as more rain poured into the area.
• The most significant flooding from the interstate was shown from I-24 at Bell Road. More than 70 cars were shown submerged after a flash flood caused Mill Creek to significantly overflow its banks. TDOT Smartway cameras captured a portable school room from a nearby school floating down the interstate and then the river current demolishing it seconds later. 

For more infomation, graphics and news releases from the National Weather Service regarding this epic flooding in Nashville, visit http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ohx/?n=may2010epicfloodevent