Flash Flood and Hail in New York, June 2, 2000

A powerful cold front moved across eastern New York late on June 2. The air mass was very unstable ahead of the cold front. A very strong jet stream aloft moved ahead of the surface cold front. The combination of the extremely unstable air and the strong winds aloft, generated widespread severe weather damage across the area. In all, over 40 separate events of severe weather were reported, the result of straight line thunderstorm winds and hail. Severe weather was reported in all but Warren and Hamilton counties. Saratoga county was especially hard hit with many communities reporting widespread damage. A lone thunderstorm, ahead of most of the action, produced dime sized hail in New Scotland, Albany county. Then, a line of thunderstorms brought destructive winds to Fulton, Herkimer and Schoharie counties, knocking down trees and power lines in many localities. Boats were literally blown out of Caroga Lake, Fulton county onto a nearby road. Golfball to half dollar size hail then fell at Richmondville, Schoharie county. Trees were downed on a house at Round Lake, Saratoga county. More trees were blown over, later at Rock City Falls in Saratoga county, briefly trapping people inside a car. By this time, the line of thunderstorms had produced widespread downing of trees in many spots in the same county. Another boat was overturned on Saratoga Lake, and two mobile homes were reported destroyed at Galway. Another mobile home was crushed by fallen trees at Ballston Spa. Milton Center had numerous trees and power lines, down and homes were damaged. Five mobile homes were severely damaged in the Stockade Mobile Home Park alone. Some roads were closed for awhile at both Galway and Milton. A large tree fell on a bus at Stillwater. The storms moved into Washington County, where more trees were toppled in Easton. A microburst was noted near downtown Schenectady on the north side of Central Park. A large number of trees were snapped and uprooted. The microburst path was about 1 3/4 mile long, and about 3/8 mile wide. A state of emergency was briefly declared for the city Friday evening. Up to 80 trees were destroyed in the Glenmont region of Albany county, between State Highway 9W, Wemple Road and the New York State Thruway. Three homes were damaged from this microburst. Trees were downed in and around Troy in Rensselaer county. Downed power lines resulted in a fire which damaged a home in North Hoosick. More trees were knocked down in Buskirk. Another microbust struck in the vicinity of County Highway Route 10 and County Highway Route 31 near Livingston, Columbia county. A large number of trees were snapped off their bases in this area, with 4 or 5 large ones uprooted. Four utility poles were taken down by the storm. Metal was peeled off the roof of one house, and the chimney destroyed on another. The microburst path was about two miles long and fanned out about a half a mile. Eyewitnesses indicated that flattened hail, to the size of half dollars, fell in a separate thunderstorm about an hour after the microburst. This hail sliced up a vast number of the fruit crops at Klein's Kill Fruit Farm, rendering them unmarketable. Other one-inch diameter hail was reported in Catskill, Greene county as well as Copake, Columbia county. Three quarter inch hail was reported in many other locations as was more thunderstorm wind damage. Other related reports included winds estimated to 60 mph, recorded at Boiceville,Ulster county. At the height of the storm, as many as 30,000 customers in and around the Capital District had no electric or gas power. An additional 20,000 customers had no power across the Mid Hudson Valley and Catskill region. In some cases, it was more than twenty four hours before power was restored.