Flood — Schuylkill, Pennsylvania

2025-05-16 · near Mechanicsville, Schuylkill, Pennsylvania

Event narrative

One to one-and-a-half inches of rainfall in one hour caused ponding of water on Route 67 in front of the Fairlane Village Mall near Pottsville, with one car becoming stranded and resulting in a single lane closure.

Wider weather episode

A cold front across northwestern Pennsylvania allowed for severe thunderstorms to form during the early morning hours across northwestern Pennsylvania, briefly producing quarter-sized hail before moving northeastward into New York. Thunderstorms associated with a cold front across Ohio and western Pennsylvania continued progressing further eastward, becoming more separated from the surface cold front as they progressed into central Pennsylvania during the afternoon hours of May 16, 2025. Enhanced destabilization across central Pennsylvania with ample shear in place allowed for thunderstorms to continue to maintain themselves as they continued into the afternoon/evening hours, with isolated supercells causing damage across the south-central mountains and across the southern tier during the evening hours. Steep lapse rates also allowed for supercells to produce large hail, with half-dollar sized hail in McAlevys Fort. Locally heavy rain from thunderstorms, coupled with saturated soils allowed for isolated instances of flooding to occur across Potter and Schuylkill counties.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (40.7028, -76.1886)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1250781. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.