An AMBER playback of the Kansas City, Missouri flash flood of 05 October 1998

On 05 October 1998 severe flash flooding struck the city of Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas, resulting in 12 fatalities and millions of dollars of property damage. Up to 125 mm of rainfall was observed in 75 minutes. High rainfall intensity occurring in a highly urbanized watershed represents one of the most dangerous flash flood scenarios. The Areal Mean Basin Estimated Rainfall (AMBER) program is designed to detect these severe flash floods in specific stream watersheds.

AMBER functionality will become available to all forecast offices in a future build of the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS). As a training aid, AMBER can be run in playback mode for any past flash flood event for which WSR-88D Archive II data is available. The AMBER playback allows each local office to examine how the AMBER output could have been applied to flash floods that have previously occurred in the WFO warning area.

This paper will use the AMBER playback mode to examine the flash flood in Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas on 05 October 1998. The ABR and ABR rate for Brush Creek and Turkey Creek will be detailed, showing the time duration and intensity of the heavy rainfall. The AMBER radar rainfall estimate for a rain gage will be compared to the observed rain gage measurement, to determine if tropical rainfall rates occurred during this severe flash flood.