Can West Tennessee experience a flood like Kerrville, Texas?

What Happened In Texas:

The flooding in Texas has a few different factors involved in the deadly flash flooding that occurred over the weekend. First, the remnants of tropical storm Barry, which dissipated on June 30th, left a very moisture-rich airmass over west and central Texas. Also, the soil in this region of Texas is mostly made up of a very hydrophobic clay.

Underground Issues:

This soil makes drainage very difficult along with the next issue in this area: the shallow bedrock layer. The bedrock in this area is limestone that developed when sea levels were much higher roughly 100 million years ago.
This high-density, ancient seafloor does not allow water to seep through and drain into lower layers of rocks.

Here in West Tennessee, we don’t have the same soil and bedrock situation. We have a much more loamy soil, which still has some clay, but has more silt and sand which allows better drainage.
That being said, after an extended dry period, the soil can still become hydrophobic even with the low clay content.

This is similar to how parts of Northwest Tennessee flooded back in February, even causing a levee to fail near the town of Rives in Obion county.
We don’t experience these extreme flash floods as often because our soil is much more receptive to water, unlike in West Texas where soil becomes almost as hard as concrete when dry.

Has It Happened?:

Some recent examples of  flash floods so extreme in our state was the Waverly flash flood in 2021, where the nearby town of McEwen received a state record 20.73 inches of rainfall in 24 hours, and last year, when remnants of Hurricane Helene impacted portions of East Tennessee causing permanent damage to the landscape.

The most recent example of extreme rainfall from a tropical system in the WBBJ viewing area was the former state record when the town of Milan received 13.6 inches of rain in 24 hours from the remnants of Tropical Storm Chris in September of 1982.

Note: The storm system that impacted West Tennessee April 2-5, 2025 brought more than 10 inches of rain, but not within 24 hours.

Be sure to always remain vigilant when flash flooding is mentioned in a forecast.

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