Name: Drought in New York, May 1 to 12, 2001
Start: 2001-05-01T00:00
End: 2001-05-12T13:00
Location: New York

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

Open the live radar over this ground

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 forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Albany, NY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 30, 1:50 PM EST, 10 hours 10 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Apr 30, 1:50 PM EST, 10 hours 10 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBANY NY
250 PM EDT MON APR 30 2001

WORKZONES AVAILABLE. ZONES GO AT 3PM.

.DISC...HERE/S COME SUMMER! HARD TO BELIEVE A MONTH AGO...SNOW
COVERED MY YARD AND IT WAS STILL SNOWING OUTSIDE. BY THIS TIME
TOMORROW...SOME FOLKS WILL PROBABLY BE CRANKING THE AC! LARGE HIGH
WILL BUILD AT ALL LEVELS OF THE ATMOSPHERE...AND BE CENTERED JUST TO
OUR SOUTH AND EAST...THE SEASON/S FIRST BERMUDA HIGH.
THE ONLY FLY IN THE OINTMENT (ISN/T THERE ALWAYS ONE?)...ARE THE
CLOUDS AND STILL A FEW SPITS...SKIMMING THE EASTERN FRINGES OF OUR
CWA. WITH TDS AOB FRZG...AND VERY FEW CLOUDS UPSTREAM...I LOOK FOR
THIS ACTIVITY TO DIMINISH DRG THE EVE HOURS. SO...WILL NOT INCLUDE
IN NEW PACKAGE SINCE OLD HAS IT PRETTY WELL COVERED. (WILL LET ANY
NOWCAST PINPOINT ANY MORE POTENT LOOKING SPRINKLES...BUT WE FEEL ONE
WAS NOT NEEDED AT THE TIME OF THIS RELEASE).

EXPECT CLEARING BY THIS EVE...AND WITH TDS AOB 32...TEMPS WILL DROP
OFF QUITE A BIT...SO COOL FWC/MAVS WILL BE FOLLOWED.

MEANWHILE...TEMPS HAVE CLIMBING WAY INTO THE 80S ACROSS OHIO VALLEY
AND THAT AIR IS TAKING A DIRECT SHOT AT US. WITH A SWRLY COMPONENT
(EVEN TO THE SURFACE) AMS VERY DRY...H8 TEMPS AT 12 WOULD EASILY
GIVE US 26C. HOWEVER...WHEN FACTORING IN THE DRY GROUND AND THE
DOWNSLPG WIND...COULD EASILY SEE TEMPS BECOMING SEVERAL DEGREES
SUPERADIABATIC SO WILL GO WITH FWC/MAV NOS. OUR RECORD HIGH IS
OFFICIALLY 85 FOR TOMORROW (SET IN 1970) 86 FOR WEDNESDAY (SET IN
1913) AND 89 FOR THURSDAY (SET AGAIN IN 1913). I FEEL AS IF WE HAVE
A SHOT AT ALL THREE BUT WILL HIGHLIGHT ONLY THE FIRST TWO DAYS AS
SUCH FOR NOW.

AVN DEVELOPS A SUSPECT LOOKING SHORT WAVE FOR EARLY THURSDAY AM
(RIGHT AS THE UA RDG IS ABOUT TO CREST OVER THE REGION). ETA/MM5 HAS
NO QPF THROUGHOUT F60. CAPES JUMPED UP QUITE A BIT THU...COMPARED TO
WED (ON THE ORDER OF 600 J/KG VERSUS NO MORE THAN 100 ON TUE.
HOWEVER WE STILL APPEAR TO BE STRONGLY CAPPED AND FEEL ANY TSRAS
THAT DO DEVELOP WOULD BE ISOLATED. NGM HAS QPF JUST TO OUR W THROUGH
F48 WHICH LOOKS SUSPECT.

WILL IGNORE THE AVN/S SHORT WV FOR NOW...AND GO DRY THROUGH THURSDAY
ALONG WITH UNSEASONABLY WARM TEMPS FORECASTED. THE NEXT REAL CHANCE
OF PCPN APPEARS TO BE FRI AS A COLD FRONT PLOWS IN FROM THE NORTH.
WHILE LOOKING MOISTURE DEPLETED...THIS FRONT WILL HAVE INCREASING
STABILITY TO WORK WITH SO ADDED THE CHC OF THUNDER. KEEP SHOWERS IN
ONLY FOR EARLY SATURDAY...THEN THE COLD FRONT SHOULD MOVE WELL TO
OUR SOUTH. NEXT HIGH BUILDS IN FOR THE BALANCE OF THE WEEKEND...WITH
COOLER TEMPS TO START...THEN WARMING WITH TIME.

.HDRO...STILL HAVE ON TROUBLES ON THE SCHROON...BUT FINALLY IT
SHOULD RECEDE BELOW FLOOD STAGE LATER ON TUESDAY.

.ALY...NY ERN...FLOOD WRNG SCHROON RIVER ZONE 42
       VT EXTRM SRN/MA EXTRM WRN/CT NW...NONE.

HWJIV

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 drought. Local standard time, as filed.

Drought, Eastern Albany

When: May 1, 12:00 AM EST to May 12, 1:00 PM EST
Where: Eastern Albany forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 42.600, -73.974 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

After heavy rains ended on April 9, an extended dry spell settled in across portions of eastern New York and adjacent New England. Between April 10 and May 11, only 0.07 inches of rain fell at Albany International Airport. This was the driest 31 days in over 56 years! Since there had been a lot of precipitation prior to the dry spell, the ground water levels did not become low enough for this dry spell to develop into a full drought. During the dry spell, numerous brush fires were noted. Scattered showers and thunderstorms brought some relief to the area on the afternoon of May 12. More substantial rains reversed the dry trend regionwide during the last 10 days of May.

What these are

Drought: A drought reaching severe (D2) or worse on the US Drought Monitor, or with notable impacts.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in New York in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in New York, May 2001

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: 5242694.