I can never get enough of weather photography, especially when I’m the one shooting the photos and it’s in Hopkinsville. Like everyone else, I kept a close watch throughout the day and evening Saturday and wondered how high Little River would rise.
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Flash flooding Saturday evening swamped roads and streets throughout Hopkinsville and Christian County. Little River overflowed its banks and several streets in town remained impassable this morning. According to Kentucky Mesonet — which has weather monitoring systems across the state, including one in Hopkinsville — we got 5.85 inches of rain on Saturday. Combined with rainfall on Tuesday and Wednesday, total precipitation for the week was 7.46 inches in Hopkinsville.
There have been no reports of anyone displaced from homes in the flooding, Christian County Emergency Manager Randy Graham told Hoptown Chronicle on Monday morning. It appeared that the residential impact was limited to flood water in garages, basements and crawl spaces.
With all the attention on the potential for flooding, I had forgotten there was a chance of snow in the forecast — until I woke early Sunday and saw the blanket of white on my lawn. Before today, I don’t believe I had ever seen snow on the ground in Hopkinsville right next to Little River’s muddy flood water. It is quite a contrast.
As I was out shooting photos today, I met Daniel Skinner in the Christian County Justice Center parking lot. He was out shooting drone photos and offered to share some of the images with Hoptown Chronicle.
You can also see several of my photos, from ground level, in this Instagram post.
The Hopkinsville Fire Department reported that it answered several calls over the weekend for people who needed help in high water, including a couple of rescues in from vehicles caught in flash flooding.
The forecast for Monday, which is the holiday for Washington’s Birthday, calls for cold but mostly sunny conditions. But heavy snow is predicted Tuesday, followed by more snow on Wednesday.
You can also see several of my photos, from ground level, below:
This story was updated with information from the Christian County emergency manager.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
