Flash Flood, Mercer
- When
- March 19, 11:25 AM EST to 1:40 PM EST
- Where
- Mercer County, Trenton
- Coordinates
- 40.283, -74.702 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
Flash Flood in New Jersey, March 19, 1998
The unseasonably wet year and month of March set the stage for flooding along the Assunpink Creek around noon on the 19th in Mercer County. m.
Where it happened
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- None recorded
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 1
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
What happened
The episode as NWS PHI wrote it up.
The unseasonably wet year and month of March set the stage for flooding along the Assunpink Creek around noon on the 19th in Mercer County. Rain began again across central New Jersey toward midnight on the 18th and fell at a moderate clip (around two tenths of an inch per hour) between 3 a.m. and 8 a.m. EST on the 19th. This was too much for the saturated ground and the Assunpink Creek. In Trenton, the creek was above its 7 foot flood stage from 1125 a.m. until 1:40 p.m. EST the on the 19th. It crested at 7.1 feet at 1215 p.m. EST. The low pressure system responsible for the rain was in the Ohio Valley the morning of the 19th and pumped in moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean into the Middle Atlantic States. Storm rainfall totals included 1.38 inches in Princeton and 1.11 inches in Hamilton Square.
The radar
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
Event by event
1 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- Flash Flood
- Flooding that begins within six hours of the rain that causes it, or of a dam or levee failure or ice jam release, often with deadly speed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Tornado in Florida, March 19, 1998
- Flash Flood in Florida, March 19 to 20, 1998
- Flood in Florida, March 19 to 27, 1998
- Flood in Florida, March 19 to 24, 1998
- Flash Flood in Florida, March 19 to 20, 1998
- Hail and Damaging Wind in Alabama, March 19, 1998
- Damaging Wind in Alabama, March 19, 1998
- Flood in Florida, March 19 to 25, 1998
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Tennessee, March 19, 1998
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Tennessee, March 19, 1998
- Flood in Florida, March 19 to 31, 1998
- Flood in Florida, March 19 to 24, 1998
More
Every storm in New Jersey in 1998Every state in 1998This day in weather historyWarnings in New Jersey, March 1998
Sources
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5636703.