Flood, Bradford
- When
- December 12, 4:30 AM EST to 5:46 PM EST
- Where
- Bradford forecast zone
- Reported by
- AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
- Coordinates
- 41.789, -76.515 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
Flood in Pennsylvania, December 12, 2003
The river forecast point, Waverly (NY)/Sayre (PA) on the Susquehanna River, rose above its flood stage of 11 feet on the 12th. 38 feet at 9:46 AM EST.
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 BGM wrote it up.
The river forecast point, Waverly (NY)/Sayre (PA) on the Susquehanna River, rose above its flood stage of 11 feet on the 12th. The crest was at 11.38 feet at 9:46 AM EST. A cold front slowly moved northeast through the area on the 11th. It brought around 1 inch of rain to the area around and just upstream. Rainfall amounts of up to 2 inches fell in the headwaters of the North Branch of the Susquehanna River. The rain and warmer weather also melted most of the snow that fell earlier in the week. This added another half inch to an inch of runoff. The flooding was minor.
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 Binghamton, NY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 11, 7:20 PM EST, 9 hours 10 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Dec 11, 7:20 PM EST, 9 hours 10 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BINGHAMTON NY 720 PM EST THU DEC 11 2003 .DISCUSSION... RAIN HAS MVD EAST OUT OF THE FCST AREA ATTM. LES HAS BEEN SLOW TO DVLP OVER WRN NY...AND SHD CONT TO BE LIMITED. CAA PTRN IS NOT THAT IMPRSV TNGT SO DELTA TS OVER THE LAKE NOT THAT GREAT. UPPER PART OF THE SNDG DOES NOT REACH INTO THE PREFERED DENDRITE ZONE UNTIL NEARLY DAYBREAK. SO...BELIEVE LES WILL NOT REALLY DVLP UNTIL LATE...AND EVEN THEN ACCUMS WILL BE LIMITED. WILL LWR SNOW ACCUMS IN THE NORTH OVERNGT. NEXT TOPIC IS FOR LTR IN THE WEEKEND. GNRLY DON/T CNCRN MYSELF WITH THE LTR PDS OF THE FCST IN THE EVENING...BUT 18Z MODELS CONVERGING ON A MAJOR SNOWSTORM FOR SUNDAY ACROSS CNTRL NY AND NE PA. WITH THE PTNL FOR PEOPLE HEADING OUT FOR WEEKEND TRAVEL...BELIEVE IT WLD BE PRUDENT TO ISSUE AN OUTLOOK STATEMENT FOR THE SNOW PTNL. INTSTG NOTE IS THE PSBLTY OF YET ANOTHER MAJOR SNOW PRODUCER WED-THU...BUT WILL WORRY ABOUT FIRST THINGS FIRST. MORFORD PRVS DISC BLO. LOCAL RADARS SHOW RAIN COVERING THE WESTERN MOHAWK VALLEY... CATSKILLS...PARTS OF THE SUSQU REGION AND THE POCONOS. PRECIP CONTINUES MOVING EAST AS NEGATIVELY TILTED UPPER LEVEL TROF SWINGS THROUGH NEW ENGLAND. PRECIP SHOULD END ACROSS ENTIRE CWA BY 6PM AND THEREFORE WONT MENTION IN ZONES. BEHIND SYSTEM COLD AIR WILL DEEPEN WITH A WESTERLY FLOW. BUFKIT SHOWS APPROX 290 DEGREE VECTOR THROUGH THE UNSTABLE LAYER BUT DEPTH OF INSTABILITY AND SNOW GROWTH NOT VERY FAVORABLE UNTIL FRIDAY. WENT ACCUM UP TO TWO INCHES ACROSS ONEIDA/MADISON/ONONDAGA COUNTIES. REST OF AREAS EXPECT JUST FLURRIES. FRIDAY...BUFKIT SHOWS BETTER INSTABILITY AND SNOW GROWTH POTENTIAL WITH SOME ADDITIONAL FORCING LATE DAY DUE TO H5 SHORT WAVE. FLOW CONTINUES AT 290 DEGREES. WENT 1 TO 3 INCHES ACROSS NRN ZONES WITH FLURRIES ACROSS TWIN TIERS. FRIDAY NIGHT...BEHIND SHORT WAVE FLOW BECOMES MORE NORTHWEST AS SFC HIGH FROM THE OHIO VALLEY BUILDS EASTWARD. EXPECT LAKE EFFECT SNOW SHOWERS TO CONTINUE UNTIL MIDNIGHT THEN DIMINISH DUE TO WEAKENING SFC FLOW UNDER HIGH PRESSURE RIDGE. SATURDAY...SFC HIGH OVR FA WITH ALL LEVELS RATHER DRY. CONTINUED WITH PS SKIES ALL ZONES. LONG TERM... NEXT SYSTEM OF NOTE...MORE OF A CLASSIC COASTAL STORM....WILL DEVELOP OVER THE GULF STATES AND TRACK ACROSS THE CAROLINAS ON SUN. MODELS COMING INTO BETTER AGREEMENT THAT SYSTEM WILL TRACK CLOSE ENOUGH TO COAST (AS 500 MB TROUGH BECOMES NEGATIVELY TITLED) TO PRODUCE SIGNIFICANT QPF ACROSS MOST OF CWA. ATTM...MODELS INDICATE SYSTEM SHOULD STILL REMAIN FAR ENOUGH TO THE SOUTH AND EAST TO PREVENT WARMER AIR AT LOW/MID LEVELS FROM MAKING TOO FAR INTO CWA. ETA IS WARMER...AND WOULD SUGGEST MIXING OF RA/FZRA/PL OVER SERN ZONES...BUT GFS COLDER. WILL JUST CALL IT SNOW FOR NOW...AND FINE TUNE P-TYPE WHEN PICTURE BECOMES CLEARER. RAISED POPS A TO HIGH CHC SUN/SUN NIGHT. 500 MB FLOW LOOKS TO BE PROGRESSIVE AS TROUGHS LINE UP IN THE PACIFIC AND MAKE THEIR WAY ACROSS NOAM. MODELS INDICATING YET ANOTHER SYSTEM FOR MID-LATE NEXT WEEK...THOUGH P-TYPE REMAINS A QUESTION ATTM. && .AVIATION... STEADY RAIN SHOULD BE OUT OF REGION BY LATE AFTERNOON....ALTHOUGH CIGS WILL REMAIN IFR...GRADUALLY RISING TO MVFR DURING THE EVENING. LAKE EFFECT -SHSN WILL DEVELOP AT KSYR/KUCA THIS EVE...LOWERING VIS AT TIMES. && .BGM WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... NY...NONE. PA...NONE. PUBLIC...RRM LONG TERM/AVIATION...MJC
The radar
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
Event by event
1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- Flood
- Flooding that develops more slowly than a flash flood: rivers leaving their banks, or water standing over land for an extended time.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Avalanche in Washington, December 12, 2003
- Flooding in Maine, December 12, 2003
- Winter Storm and Heavy Snow in Oklahoma, December 12 to 13, 2003
- Heavy Snow in New York, December 12, 2003
- Winter Storm in Kansas, December 12 to 13, 2003
- Heavy Rain in Oregon, December 12 to 14, 2003
- Winter Storm in Kansas, December 12 to 13, 2003
- Winter Storm in Kansas, December 12 to 13, 2003
- Heavy Snow in Idaho, December 12 to 14, 2003
- Heavy Snow in Oklahoma, December 12 to 13, 2003
- Winter Storm in Arkansas, December 12 to 13, 2003
- Flooding in Oregon, December 12 to 14, 2003
More
Every storm in Pennsylvania in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in Pennsylvania, December 2003
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: 5328836.