Flood — Ulster, New York

2007-04-15 to 2007-04-18 · near Walker Vly, Ulster, New York

Event narrative

Heavy rainfall led to flooding of numerous creeks and streams throughout the county. The Verkeerderkill Creek exceeded bankful around 1655 EST on the 15th, flooding adjacent portions of Ulsterville Road in Walker Valley. Additional flooding was reported around 2313 LST near New Paltz, where several roads were closed due to high water, including Route 299 to Mountain Rest Road, and from Dug Road to Kleinkill Drive.

A state of emergency was declared by 0745 EST on the 16th due to the widespread flooding. Mandatory evacuations also occurred along the Esopus Creek in the town of Ulster around 1430 EST on the 16th.

Wider weather episode

Low pressure developed over the lower Mississippi Valley on Saturday April 14th, and then moved northeast while intensifying, reaching the southern Appalachians by Sunday morning, April 15th, and then just south of western Long Island by Monday morning, April 16th. This low became very intense, with a central barometric pressure falling below 970 millibars upon reaching just south of Long Island Monday morning. The low then headed off the New England coast by Tuesday morning.

This intense coastal storm spread heavy precipitation across the lower and mid Hudson Valley region of New York, starting on Sunday, and persisting into late Monday. Initially, the precipitation fell as a mixture of wet snow, sleet and rain, with snow and sleet more prevalent across the higher elevations. The precipitation changed to plain rain by late Sunday afternoon into Monday.

Liquid equivalent precipitation totals from this storm ranged from 3 to 8 inches. This led to widespread flooding across the lower and mid Hudson Valley region from late Sunday into Monday evening.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.6300, -74.3800)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 26730. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.