Tri-State floods
© YouTube/Josh Purnell (screen capture)

Flood watch lasts until 8 a.m. Friday

By 9 a.m. Thursday, a 101-year-old weather record had fallen in the Queen City. The official weather station for the city at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport recorded a total of 1.46 inches of rain, breaking the previous record of 1.43 inches from 1915.

Heavier amounts fell north and east of Cincinnati, with 3.47 inches reported at Lunken Airport and 4.49 inches in Anderson Township.

Flood warnings were in effect for most of Thursday morning for parts of the Tri-State as torrential downpours moved through the area Thursday morning.

Around 5:20 a.m., the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for northern Campbell and Kenton counties in Kentucky and northern Clermont and southeastern Hamilton counties in Ohio. That warning expired at 8:15 a.m., when NWS issued a flood warning for the same areas until 11 a.m. Thursday.


A flash flood watch remains in effect for most of the Tri-State until 8 a.m. Friday, including Adams, Brown, Clermont, Hamilton and Highland counties in Ohio; Dearborn, Ohio, Ripley and Switzerland counties in Indiana; and Boone, Bracken, Campbell, Carroll, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton, Mason, Owen, Pendleton and Robertson counties in Kentucky.

When issuing the flash flood warning at 5:20, NWS estimated 1.5 to 2.25 inches of rainfall had already fallen across the area with predictions of an additional 1 to 1.5 inches Thursday morning. More than four inches fell in some areas around Greater Cincinnati by 8 a.m. See rainfall totals in the image below.


Flooding stranded motorists around Kellogg Avenue and Sutton Road near Coney island as crews made rescues of at least six different vehicles. The Fort Thomas exit off I-471 was closed and travel across the Brent Spence Bridge was especially slow due to flooding.

By 6 a.m., about 1,600 Duke Energy customers were without power, with the majority centered around Fayetteville (Brown County) and Midland (Clinton County).