More rain for Western Kentucky after region already hit historic high

On Wednesday, far Western Kentucky recorded the most rainfall in Kentucky history for a 24-hour period. Homes flooded, roads washed out and emergency rescues were performed.

Thursday might bring more flooding, according to the National Weather Service.

NWS Paducah tweeted Thursday morning that the area could see up to two more inches of rain through noon. That comes after 11.28 inches of rain in 24 hours was observed near Mayfield, which flooded the area about a year and a half into its effort to recover from catastrophic tornadoes that killed more than 70 Kentuckians. Much of the surrounding counties saw similar amounts of rainfall and flooding this week.

“Another round of showers and thunderstorms falling on extremely saturated ground today may cause renewed flooding concerns. Some areas could receive amounts between 0.50” to 2”, mainly over western Kentucky,” the NWS tweeted.

A flood watch is in effect for the entire Purchase Region as well as portions of Southern Illinois and Missouri and other Western Kentucky counties through noon.

Though two more inches of rain isn’t much in and of itself, saturation of the soil from yesterday’s torrent is a primary concern for the region in dealing with the additional rain.

Chris Barton, a professor of Forest Hydrology and Watershed Management at the University of Kentucky, explained that saturation was a key factor in historic flooding that took place in Eastern Kentucky one year ago.

“When the ground is saturated with water, no more water can go in. It’s like a sponge. If you completely fill a sponge up with water and you try to add more, it just runs off the top,” Barton said. “It’s kind of like hitting pavement at that point.”

Barton said that soils in Western Kentucky, generally speaking, have slightly worse rates of infiltration than soils in Eastern Kentucky. However, Western Kentucky doesn’t have the same issues of valley-shaped topography as the eastern region of the state, where deadly floodwaters funneled through hollers in a matter of minutes.