Saturday storms to cause ‘very dangerous’ flash flooding following week of deadly Tennessee weather

The National Weather Service is warning that Saturday, and Saturday night, will be the most dangerous times for flash flooding this week in Middle Tennessee.

The ground is saturated from recent storms, so additional rain will run off and cause flooding. Some areas in Middle and West Tennessee have already received a month or more worth of rain this week. 

“Saturday is the day that concerns me the most right now, because we have time for our atmosphere to recharge,” along with that evening, said Ryan Husted, a meteorologist with the weather service. “Flooding at night is a very dangerous situation.”

Nashville is forecasted to receive an additional 4-5 inches of rain this weekend and thunderstorms on Saturday. Nashville got about 4 inches of rain on April 3. Some towns, including Waverly and Clarksville, are forecasted to receive an extra 6-8 inches of rainfall.

Courtesy National Weather Service

The National Weather Service in Nashville forecasted that some areas in Middle Tennessee may receive an additional 8 or more inches of rainfall between April 4-6, 2025.

Widespread impacts

This week’s storms killed at least five Tennesseans — in Carroll, McNairy, Obion and Fayette counties. TEMA Director Patrick Sheehan said there are likely more people who have not yet been found.

“We continue to be at five weather-related fatalities confirmed. We’re certain there are going to be more,” Sheehan said.

Tennessee is in a state of emergency. President Donald Trump granted the governor’s request for federal assistance. It means FEMA can immediately begin coordinating disaster relief efforts in all 95 Tennessee counties.

So far, storm surveyors have confirmed a powerful EF-3 tornado in Selmer, where apartments and mobile homes were destroyed. The weather service is also looking into damage reports across a wide area and possible tornadoes in Hickman, Lawrence, Perry and Wilson counties.

The storm system hit with an array of impacts:

• In Chester and Hardeman counties, water services are disrupted — and there is no water coming from the Grand Junction Water Department.
• McNairy County is experiencing widespread communications issues.
• Power outages peaked overnight Thursday at about 20,000 customers, but were hovering around 2,000 outages Friday afternoon.

In all, the weather service issued more than 50 tornado warnings. In Nashville, frequent use of sirens, coupled with power outages, caused some of sirens to lose power and fail during later waves of the storm.

Metro emergency crews have fielded about 160 water-related calls this week and carried out multiple water rescues.

Scott Potter, Metro Water Services director, said homeowners should be prepared for possible flooding.

“If it rains really hard, those drainage areas and neighborhoods that have misbehaved in the past are gonna misbehave again,” he said. “So, I would encourage homeowners to reflect on what’s happened in the past during heavy rain events and anticipate the same thing happening.”

Worries in West Tennessee

In West Tennessee, forecasters expect “generational flooding,” with accumulations of 10-15 inches by Sunday. Memphis had already received nearly 7 inches of rain over a two-day period as of early Friday afternoon.

State officials warn that folks should remain tuned into weather alerts.

“Don’t let the fact that they can be annoying — or cause you to maybe have a blood pressure spike — get in the way of paying attention to what’s going on around you,” Sheehan said.