Flood — Albany, New York

2007-04-16 · near Coeymans, Albany, New York

Event narrative

Heavy rain led to widespread flooding of small streams and creeks across the county, which began during the morning hours of Monday, April 16th, and persisted into late Monday evening on the 16th.

Widespread flooding led to numerous road closures, including Miller Road off Route 9W in Coeymans, Route 32 in New Scotland between Lagrange Lane and Winne Lane, and Creble Road between Elm Avenue and South Albany Road in Bethlehem Center. In addition, evacuations occurred along Coeymans Creek.

Furthermore, a fatality and injury occurred as a brother and sister, ages 14 and 15, respectively, canoed into the rain swollen Basic Creek in Westerlo when the canoe tipped over around 17:00 EST. The female drowned, being swept away by strong currents within the creek. She was pronounced dead at Albany Medical Center at 21:02 EST on the 16th. The male was able to reach the shore.

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 → (42.4800, -73.8000)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 26734. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.