Flash Flood — Schenectady, New York

2008-07-23 · near Schenectady, Schenectady, New York

Event narrative

Flash flooding resulted in numerous road closures across Schenectady County during the late afternoon and evening hours.

Several roads were also washed out, including, but not limited to, State Route 160 and culverts near the New York State Thruway overpass in Pattersonville, Crawford Road, North Kelly Road, and the bridge at Kelly Station Road and Route 7.

Additional damage occurred to a section of Route 5S near Rotterdam Junction.

In addition, Interstate 90, the New York State Thruway, was closed between exits 26 and 27 due to flooding, with several vehicles disabled in the flood waters.

Other roads that were closed included, but were not limited to, Guilderland Road at Cleveland Road, Route 147 between Charlton Road and West Glenville Road, Junction Road, Creek Road and Shun Pike Road near Esperance.

High water also scoured out a railroad embankment and the tracks that a train was on, stranding the train until the track could be repaired.

Wider weather episode

A developing low pressure system along a nearly stationary boundary intensified as it tracked northeast from western Pennsylvania into central New York from Wednesday morning on July 23rd, through Thursday morning on July 24th. A cold front associated with this low slowly moved east across eastern New York late Wednesday afternoon into early Thursday morning.

The combination of strong upper level dynamics, and abundant moisture in place, led to widespread showers and thunderstorms containing heavy rainfall. This led to flooding across portions of eastern New York from Wednesday afternoon into Thursday morning.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (42.8000, -73.9300)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 127160. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.