Yesterday we experienced a line of showers and thunderstorms that pushed through Trumbull Co. and brought over 4 inches of rain to parts of Warren and 2.5 inches of rain in Howland township.

This led to flooding across the Valley and even left one business dealing with damages in Warren.

" We had about a foot of water and everything had to be moved and cleaned. We had to lock the doors for the safety of the customers. Including the two rental properties, about 10,000 dollars worth of damages," said Mike Gillespie, a worker at Convenient Food Mart.

As of today, the mart is back open and operational. Workers stayed after until midnight last night, cleaning the water out and getting things moved around.

Several questions were asked about the storm draining system and why they struggled during Wednesday's storms.

"The warren storm sewers are in good shape but what we experienced yesterday was a 1 in a 25-year storm which is significantly higher than we normally experienced," said Edward Haller, Director of Pollution Control.

A 25-year rainfall event has a 1 in 25 or 4% chance of occurring in a year. In addition, each locality has its criteria for how much rain must fall within 24 hours to classify as a particular rain event.

The reason why the storms produced so much rain is due to several reasons.

A pop-up storm developed around 1:45 in Warren and it continued to grow. The storm did not move because we had minimal wind speeds aloft to push the storm. Then, another line moved into the Valley behind the storm that developed and dumped more rain in Trumbull Co. and sounding areas. This was the leading cause of the floods.

Looking at the climatology of this, as our climate gets warmer and warmer, it can hold more water and storms can produce heavier thunderstorms. At the airport, August 2021 has seen the most rain ever.

The best way to stay prepared is to download the 21 Storm Tracker app.