Ice Storm, Orange
- When
- December 11, 7:00 AM EST to December 12, 12:00 AM EST
- Where
- Orange forecast zone
- Injuries
- 0 direct, 8 indirect
- Reported by
- Trained Spotter
- Coordinates
- 41.402, -74.306 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
Ice Storm in New York, December 11 to 12, 2008
Low pressure over the eastern Gulf of Mexico on the evening of December 10, tracked northeast and up into the Carolinas by the following evening of December 11. In response to a strong upper trough approaching from the west, a secondary low developed along the Mid Atlantic coast during the evening and rapidly deepened overnight.
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
- 8
- 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 OKX wrote it up.
Low pressure over the eastern Gulf of Mexico on the evening of December 10, tracked northeast and up into the Carolinas by the following evening of December 11. In response to a strong upper trough approaching from the west, a secondary low developed along the Mid Atlantic coast during the evening and rapidly deepened overnight. By the following morning, the low had deepened to an estimated 994 mb, just to the south and east of Montauk Point. A transient high over eastern Canada provided enough cold air across northern portions of the Lower Hudson Valley for a prolonged period of freezing rain during the late morning hours of December 11 through the early morning hours of December 12. Thereafter, enough warm air worked in for a complete changeover to rain with several inches of rainfall.
Automated observations in tandem with pictures from trained spotters supported ice accumulations around one half inch across the northern half of Orange county.
At 0800EST, there was a major automobile accident on the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge in Orange County with eight injuries. There were also scattered reports of trees and power lines down with the American Red Cross opening a shelter in Central Valley the following day.
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 Dec 11, 6:51 AM EST, 9 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Dec 11, 6:51 AM EST, 9 minutes before
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</html>Hazardous weather outlook, Dec 11, 5:34 AM EST, 1 hour 26 minutes before
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE UPTON NY 534 AM EST THU DEC 11 2008 CTZ006>012-NJZ005-006-011-NYZ071>081-121045- NORTHERN NEW HAVEN-NORTHERN MIDDLESEX-NORTHERN NEW LONDON- SOUTHERN FAIRFIELD-SOUTHERN NEW HAVEN-SOUTHERN MIDDLESEX- SOUTHERN NEW LONDON-ESSEX-HUDSON-UNION-SOUTHERN WESTCHESTER- NEW YORK (MANHATTAN)-BRONX-RICHMOND (STATEN ISLAND)-KINGS (BROOKLYN)- QUEENS-NASSAU-NORTHWESTERN SUFFOLK-NORTHEASTERN SUFFOLK- SOUTHWESTERN SUFFOLK-SOUTHEASTERN SUFFOLK- 534 AM EST THU DEC 11 2008 ...FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT THROUGH LATE TONIGHT... THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT...NORTHEAST NEW JERSEY AND SOUTHEAST NEW YORK. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT. PLEASE LISTEN TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR GO TO WEATHER.GOV ON THE INTERNET FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE FOLLOWING HAZARDS. FLOOD WATCH. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY THE COMBINATION OF STANDING WATER...WET SURFACES AND RAPIDLY COOLING TEMPERATURES FRIDAY NIGHT WILL RESULT IN WIDESPREAD ICING CONDITIONS. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL DIFFICULT TO HAZARDOUS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL LIKELY BE NEEDED. && THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK PROVIDES A SUMMARY OF POTENTIAL WIDESPREAD HAZARDOUS WEATHER EVENTS THAT MAY REACH NWS WARNING CRITERIA. MOST LONG FUSED NWS WATCHES...WARNINGS AND ADVISORIES IN EFFECT ARE HIGHLIGHTED. PLEASE REFER TO THE LATEST NWS FORECASTS FOR WEATHER NOT MEETING NWS WARNING CRITERIA. CTZ005-NJZ002>004-NYZ068>070-121045- NORTHERN FAIRFIELD-WESTERN PASSAIC-BERGEN-EASTERN PASSAIC-PUTNAM- ROCKLAND-NORTHERN WESTCHESTER- 534 AM EST THU DEC 11 2008 ...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM EST FRIDAY... ...FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT THROUGH LATE TONIGHT... THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT...NORTHEAST NEW JERSEY AND SOUTHEAST NEW YORK. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT. PLEASE LISTEN TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR GO TO WEATHER.GOV ON THE INTERNET FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE FOLLOWING HAZARDS. FLOOD WATCH. WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY THE COMBINATION OF STANDING WATER...WET SURFACES AND RAPIDLY COOLING TEMPERATURES FRIDAY NIGHT WILL RESULT IN WIDESPREAD ICING CONDITIONS. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL DIFFICULT TO HAZARDOUS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL LIKELY BE NEEDED. && THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK PROVIDES A SUMMARY OF POTENTIAL WIDESPREAD HAZARDOUS WEATHER EVENTS THAT MAY REACH NWS WARNING CRITERIA. MOST LONG FUSED NWS WATCHES...WARNINGS AND ADVISORIES IN EFFECT ARE HIGHLIGHTED. PLEASE REFER TO THE LATEST NWS FORECASTS FOR WEATHER NOT MEETING NWS WARNING CRITERIA. NYZ067-121045- ORANGE- 534 AM EST THU DEC 11 2008 ...WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM EST FRIDAY... ...FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT THROUGH LATE TONIGHT... THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHEAST NEW YORK. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT. PLEASE LISTEN TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR GO TO WEATHER.GOV ON THE INTERNET FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE FOLLOWING HAZARDS. FLOOD WATCH. WINTER STORM WARNING. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY THE COMBINATION OF STANDING WATER...WET SURFACES AND RAPIDLY COOLING TEMPERATURES FRIDAY NIGHT WILL RESULT IN WIDESPREAD ICING CONDITIONS. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL DIFFICULT TO HAZARDOUS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL LIKELY BE NEEDED. && THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK PROVIDES A SUMMARY OF POTENTIAL WIDESPREAD HAZARDOUS WEATHER EVENTS THAT MAY REACH NWS WARNING CRITERIA. MOST LONG FUSED NWS WATCHES...WARNINGS AND ADVISORIES IN EFFECT ARE HIGHLIGHTED. PLEASE REFER TO THE LATEST NWS FORECASTS FOR WEATHER NOT MEETING NWS WARNING CRITERIA. ANZ330-335-338-340-345-350-353-355-121045- 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-PECONIC AND GARDINERS BAYS- SOUTH SHORE BAYS FROM JONES INLET THROUGH SHINNECOCK BAY- 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- 534 AM EST THU DEC 11 2008 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR ATLANTIC COASTAL WATERS. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT. NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED AT THIS TIME. && THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK PROVIDES A SUMMARY OF POTENTIAL WIDESPREAD HAZARDOUS WEATHER EVENTS THAT MAY REACH NWS WARNING CRITERIA. MOST LONG FUSED NWS WATCHES...WARNINGS AND ADVISORIES IN EFFECT ARE HIGHLIGHTED. PLEASE REFER TO THE LATEST NWS FORECASTS FOR WEATHER NOT MEETING NWS WARNING CRITERIA.
The radar
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
Event by event
1 ice storm. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- Ice Storm
- Freezing rain accumulating a quarter inch or more of ice, or less where it caused significant damage.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Ice Storm and Flooding in Massachusetts, December 11 to 12, 2008
- Ice Storm and Winter Storm in New York, December 11 to 12, 2008
- Ice Storm in New Hampshire, December 11 to 12, 2008
- Ice Storm and Winter Storm in Maine, December 11 to 12, 2008
- Ice Storm and Winter Storm in New Hampshire, December 11 to 12, 2008
- Lightning Strike and Heavy Rain in North Carolina, December 11, 2008
- Winter Storm in Vermont, December 11 to 12, 2008
- Tornado and Damaging Winds in South Carolina, December 11, 2008
- Ice Storm and Heavy Snow in Mississippi, December 11, 2008
- Heavy Snow in Kentucky, December 11 to 12, 2008
- High Wind in Georgia, December 11, 2008
- Strong Wind in Georgia, December 11, 2008
More
Every storm in New York in 2008Every state in 2008This day in weather historyWarnings in New York, December 2008
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: 147290.