During the summer of 2002, four major storm events occurred in eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota, leaving the region under a considerable amount of standing water. These events left their mark by destroying numerous agricultural crops, creating localized flash flooding and overland flooding within communities and agricultural fields.

This paper describes the impact of one of these storms and how the use of geographical information systems (GIS) facilitated the investigation process. On 9-10 July 2002 a severe rainstorm event occurred in eastern North Dakota in the vicinity of Buxton, ND. Twelve to fifteen inches of rain fell in only a few hours, and due to the low sloping topography, the water ponded in many places only to be evaporated or infiltrated.

Using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), radar output and recorded climate data within a GIS framework constructs a flooding threshold scenario. This scenario provides community planners and decision makers a view of the major ponding areas, as well as the threshold amount of rainfall before the ponding began.