Heavy Snow — Eastern Albany, New York

2020-12-16 to 2020-12-17 · Eastern Albany, New York

Event narrative

One man was killed (indirect) after his snowmobile collided with a tractor trailer on Interstate 787 southbound in Albany at Exit 4B near the Corning Preserve around 2:30 am on Thursday, December 17.

Wider weather episode

An area of low pressure tracked northward off the East Coast toward New York City on Wednesday, December 16, then eastward to just off Cape Cod on Thursday, December 17. As a result, cold enough air north of this low led to moderate to heavy snowfall across all of eastern New York. Snow started across the mid-Hudson Valley during the late afternoon hours on Wednesday, December 16 and then pushed farther north into the rest of eastern New York during the evening and overnight hours. Snow reached its peak intensity during the overnight hours before gradually winding down during the morning hours on Thursday, December 17.

Bands of heavy snow occurred with snowfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour reported at times. An exceptionally strong band of snow sat over areas just north and west of Albany, New York for several hours producing snowfall rates of 3 to 6 inches per hour. Areas within this heavy band included Schoharie, Schenectady, Saratoga, southeast Warren and Washington counties and extended into southern Vermont. Here, snowfall totals ranged from 24 to around 40 inches. Snowfall amounts of 12 to 24 inches were common elsewhere, aside from northern portions of Herkimer and Hamilton counties, which were on the outer periphery of the storm, as snowfall amounts trended downward to between 2 and 6 inches there. The Albany International Airport received 22.9 inches of snow which marked it as the 8th biggest snowstorm on record and the 4th biggest in the month of December, just surpassing the December 1-3, 2019 snowstorm. The snow from this storm generally fell in a 12-18 hour period, about half of the time when compared to the December 1-3, 2019 storm.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a State of Emergency for 18 counties in New York including Albany, Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Montgomery, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, Ulster and Washington. State police responded to hundreds of accidents and disabled vehicles across the state. As a result of the heavy snow, speed limits were reduced to 45 mph across many key interstate corridors, including the NY Thruway, I-88, I-87, I-787 and I-890. Many school districts were closed on Thursday, December 17. Most scheduled departing flights from the Albany International Airport were also canceled.

One man was killed (indirect) after his snowmobile collided with a tractor trailer on Interstate 787 southbound in Albany at exit 4B near Corning Preserve around 2:30 am on Thursday, December 17.

Key impacts: transportation delays, traffic accidents, flight cancellations, school closures, one indirect fatality.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 932086. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.