Flash Flooding and Flooding in New Jersey, October 8 to 10, 2005

Name: Flash Flooding and Flooding in New Jersey, October 8 to 10, 2005
Start: 2005-10-08T09:15
End: 2005-10-10T21:45
Location: New Jersey

October 8 to 10, 2005 · NWS OKX · 10 events in 7 counties and zones

S. Coast and moved slowly north as a large area of high pressure off the New England Coast remained nearly stationary.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 3 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: $35,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 10

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 OKX wrote it up.

As a cold front moved slowly east, a wave of low pressure developed along the Southeast U.S. Coast and moved slowly north as a large area of high pressure off the New England Coast remained nearly stationary. Abundant moisture from the remnants of tropical system Tammy over the Southeast also interacted with and converged north along this front.Rain moved north and developed across the region during Friday afternoon, October 7th. As the wave of low pressure moved north along the front, periods of heavy rain spread north across the region Friday night through Saturday, October 8th. Rain ended during Sunday, October 9th as the low moved northeast of the region.Heavy rain resulted in significant flooding on some rivers, most small brooks and streams, and throughout urban areas in low lying and poor drainage areas. Rainfall amounts ranged from 3.30 inches at West New York in Hudson County to 9.40 inches at Ramsey in Bergen County. At Newark Liberty Airport, a new daily rainfall record of 4.08 inches was set on October 8th.Here are selected rainfall amounts in hundredths of an inch for:Passaic County - from 4.65 inches at Wayne to 9.30 inches at Pompton Lakes.Bergen County - from 3.26 inches at Saddlebrook to 9.40 inches at Ramsey. At Teterboro Airport, 4.90 inches was measured.Essex County - from 4.47 inches at Newark Airport to 6.63 inches at Caldwell.Hudson County - from 3.30 inches at West New York to 4.88 inches at Harrison.Union County - from 5.27 inches at Cranford to 5.74 inches at Canoe Brook.Maximum hourly rainfall rates ranged from 0.57 at Teterboro Airport to 0.96 at Caldwell Airport.Several rivers, brooks, and streams exceeded their flood stages during this time. Here is a summary of their levels.The Saddle River at:Lodi was above its' flood stage of 6.0 feet from 10:15 pm EDT on October 8th through 12:30 pm EDT on October 9th. The river crested at 8.81 feet at 8 am EDT on October 9th.Ridgewood was above its' flood stage of 6.0 feet from 12:15 am EDT through 3:45 am EDT on October 9th. The river crested at 6.38 feet at 1:30 am EDT on October 9th.Saddle was above its' flood stage of 4.5 feet from 10:15 pm EDT to 11:30 pm EDT on October 8th.The Hohokus Brook at Ho-Ho-Kus was above its' flood stage of 3.0 feet from 7:15 pm EDT on October 8th through 6:10 am EDT on October 9th. The brook crested at 4.20 feet at 11:15 pm EDT on October 8th.The Ramapo River at Mahwah was above its' flood stage from 8:30 pm EDT on October 8th through 10:45 pm EDT on October 10th. The river crested at 9.6 feet at 5:45 am on October 9th.The Molly Ann Brook at North Haledon was above its' flood stage of 6.0 feet from 8 pm to 8:45 pm EDT on October 8th. The brook crested at 6.27 feet at 8:15 pm EDT on October 8th.The Rahway River at Springfield was above its' flood stage of 5.5 feet from 8:45 pm EDT on October 8th through 4 am EDT on October 9th. The river crested at 6.68 feet at midnight EDT on October 9th.In Ramsey, the DeBaun Avenue Bridge experienced severe flooding and became impassable. The Spring Street Bridge could not contain water runoff and a driveway collapsed. The preliminary cost estimate of damage caused by flooding in Ramsey was $35,000.Flash flooding of low lying and poor drainage areas with the partial closure of many roads in Bergen County was reported at multiple times. The Garden State Parkway in Clifton was reported closed at two different times.

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 New York, NY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Oct 8, 2:00 AM EST, 7 hours 15 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Oct 8, 2:00 AM EST, 7 hours 15 minutes before

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Hazardous weather outlook, Oct 8, 3:09 AM EST, 6 hours 6 minutes before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE UPTON NY
409 AM EDT SAT OCT 8 2005

CTZ005>012-NJZ002>006-011-NYZ067>081-090815-
NORTHERN FAIRFIELD-NORTHERN NEW HAVEN-NORTHERN MIDDLESEX-
NORTHERN NEW LONDON-SOUTHERN FAIRFIELD-SOUTHERN NEW HAVEN-
SOUTHERN MIDDLESEX-SOUTHERN NEW LONDON-WESTERN PASSAIC-BERGEN-
EASTERN PASSAIC-ESSEX-HUDSON-UNION-ORANGE-PUTNAM-ROCKLAND-
NORTHERN WESTCHESTER-SOUTHERN WESTCHESTER-NEW YORK (MANHATTAN)-
BRONX-RICHMOND (STATEN ISLAND)-KINGS (BROOKLYN)-QUEENS-NASSAU-
NORTHWESTERN SUFFOLK-NORTHEASTERN SUFFOLK-SOUTHWESTERN SUFFOLK-
SOUTHEASTERN SUFFOLK-
409 AM EDT SAT OCT 8 2005

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHERN
CONNECTICUT...NORTHEAST NEW JERSEY AND SOUTHEAST NEW YORK.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

A FLOOD WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR THE AREA THROUGH SUNDAY MORNING.

A SLOW MOVING COLD FRONT AND UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCE WILL
INTERACT WITH THE REMNANTS OF TROPICAL STORM TAMMY TO PRODUCE A
WIDESPREAD...HEAVY RAINFALL ACROSS THE AREA. ADDITIONAL RAINFALL
AMOUNTS OF 3 TO 5 INCHES WILL CAUSE WIDESPREAD URBAN...SMALL
STREAM...AND POOR DRAINAGE FLOODING

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY

THE FLOOD WATCH CONTINUES THROUGH SUNDAY MORNING.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION NEEDED FOR FLOODING AND EXCESSIVE RAINFALL
REPORTS.

ANZ330-335-338-350-353-355-370-090815-
LONG ISLAND SOUND EAST OF NEW HAVEN CT/PORT JEFFERSON NY-
LONG ISLAND SOUND WEST OF NEW HAVEN CT/PORT JEFFERSON NY-
NEW YORK HARBOR-MORICHES INLET NY TO MONTAUK POINT NY OUT 20 NM-
FIRE ISLAND INLET NY TO MORICHES INLET NY OUT 20 NM-
SANDY HOOK NJ TO FIRE ISLAND INLET NY OUT 20 NM-
WATERS FROM MONTAUK POINT NY TO SANDY HOOK NJ FROM 20 TO 40 NM-
409 AM EDT SAT OCT 8 2005

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF ATLANTIC
COASTAL WATERS.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

A SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT FOR ROUGH SEAS ON THE OCEAN
WATERS.

OTHERWISE...NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY

A SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY CONTINUES FOR ROUGH SEAS ON THE OCEAN
WATERS THROUGH THE PERIOD.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

NO SPOTTER ACTIVATION NEEDED.

The radar

The Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 121 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 14:14 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

6 flood, 4 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.

Flood, Western Passaic

When: October 8, 9:15 AM EST to 11:59 PM EST
Where: Western Passaic forecast zone
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 41.034, -74.300 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Flood, Bergen

When: October 8, 9:15 AM EST to October 10, 9:45 PM EST
Where: Bergen forecast zone
Property damage: $35,000
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 40.967, -74.083

Flood, Eastern Passaic

When: October 8, 9:15 AM EST to 11:59 PM EST
Where: Eastern Passaic forecast zone
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 41.034, -74.300 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Flood, Essex

When: October 8, 9:15 AM EST to 11:59 PM EST
Where: Essex forecast zone
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 39.883, -74.700

Flood, Hudson

When: October 8, 9:15 AM EST to 11:59 PM EST
Where: Hudson forecast zone
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 40.731, -74.076 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Flood, Union

When: October 8, 9:15 AM EST to October 9, 3:00 AM EST
Where: Union forecast zone
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 39.383, -75.117

Flash Flood, Passaic

When: October 8, 9:58 AM EST to 10:58 AM EST
Where: Passaic County, Clifton
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 40.867, -74.150

Flash Flood, Bergen

When: October 8, 11:00 AM EST to 12:00 PM EST
Where: Bergen County, Bergenfield
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 40.917, -74.083

Flash Flood, Bergen

When: October 8, 7:45 PM EST to 8:45 PM EST
Where: Bergen County, Countywide
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 40.967, -74.083

Flash Flood, Passaic

When: October 8, 8:00 PM EST to 9:00 PM EST
Where: Passaic County, Clifton
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 40.867, -74.150

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.
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

Every storm in New Jersey in 2005 Every state in 2005 This day in weather history Warnings in New Jersey, October 2005

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 2026-10-01. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5481424, 5481425, 5481426, 5481427, 5481428, 5481429, 5481695, 5481696, 5481697, 5481698.