Event-Specific Flood Extent and Depth Maps for Pennsylvania

Hurricane Debby made landfall on the western coast of Florida near Steinhatchee on August 5th, 2024. Debby tracked north, delivering excessive rain to the Southeastern United States, eventually reaching Pennsylvania as a post-tropical cyclone. Debby's path tracked roughly north across Pennsylvania, following the Allegheny Front. Excessive rainfall and associated flooding from Debby impacted Pennsylvania, specifically the Northern tier region, on August 8th-9th. Rainfall in Pennsylvania’s northern tier was intense, with some basins receiving 4-6 inches of precipitation in as little as 6 hours. Four USGS streamgages in Pennsylvania experienced record peaks as a result of Debby: 01549500 Blockhouse Creek near English Center, PA (Lycoming County, 84 years of record) 01518862 Cowanesque River at Westfield, PA (Tioga County, 41 years of record) 01519200 Cowanesque River at Elkland (Tioga County, 43 years of record) 01543693 E Fork Sinnemahoning Cr at Wharton Twp (Potter County, 13 years of record) Following the flooding, the USGS documented 18 high-water marks (HWMs) in hard hit Westfield, Pennsylvania. These HWMs were surveyed into North American Vertical Datum of 1988 and published to the USGS Flood Event Viewer. Using geospatial methods presented in Stuckey and others (2023), flood extent and depth maps were generated for Westfield, PA due to sufficient density of HWMs and favorable hydrologic and hydraulic conditions for flood mapping. This data release contains flood extent polygons, modelled boundary polygons, HWM points, and flood depth rasters for flooding associated with Hurricane Debby for 1 Pennsylvania locality: Cowanesque River at Westfield, Pennsylvania References: Stuckey, M.H., Conlon, M.D., and Weaver, M.R., 2023, Characterization of peak streamflows and flooding in select areas of Pennsylvania from the remnants of Hurricane Ida, September 1–2, 2021 (ver. 1.1, September 28, 2023): U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2023–5086, 28 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20235086.