Winter Storm and Winter Weather in New York, January 28 to 29, 2009

Name: Winter Storm and Winter Weather in New York, January 28 to 29, 2009
Start: 2009-01-28T02:00
End: 2009-01-29T03:30
Location: New York

January 28 to 29, 2009 · NWS ALY · 27 events in 27 counties and zones

A low pressure system developed over the lower Mississippi Valley during Tuesday January 27th. The low then strengthened, and tracked northeast from the lower Ohio Valley Wednesday morning on January 28th, into Pennsylvania during Wednesday afternoon, and into northern New England by Thursday morning January 29th.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 27 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: 27

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 ALY wrote it up.

This storm spread a significant wintry mix of precipitation across eastern New York State, with heavy snow and sleet across much of the southern Adirondacks into the Lake George Saratoga region, with a significant mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain occurring elsewhere.

Snow and sleet amounts ranged from 8 to 12 inches across the southern Adirondacks and the Lake George Saratoga region, with 4 to 8 inches occurring further south across the Mohawk River Valley, the Greater Capital District, the eastern Catskills, the Schoharie Valley, the mid Hudson Valley and into the central and southern Taconics. In addition, ice accretion from freezing rain of between one and three tenths of an inch occurred across areas near and south of the Mohawk River Valley, with locally higher amounts of up to one half of an inch occurring across portions of the mid Hudson Valley.

This wintry mix resulted in the closure of numerous schools and businesses across east central New York for both Wednesday and Thursday mornings, and also created treacherous travel conditions.

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 Jan 28, 12:55 AM EST, 1 hour 5 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jan 28, 12:55 AM EST, 1 hour 5 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>

The radar

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

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

23 winter storm, 4 winter weather. Local standard time, as filed.

Winter Storm, Schoharie

When: January 28, 2:00 AM EST to January 29, 3:30 AM EST
Where: Schoharie forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 42.588, -74.442 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Western Schenectady

When: January 28, 3:00 AM EST to January 29, 3:30 AM EST
Where: Western Schenectady forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 42.818, -74.059 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Eastern Schenectady

When: January 28, 3:00 AM EST to January 29, 3:30 AM EST
Where: Eastern Schenectady forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 42.818, -74.059 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Southern Saratoga

When: January 28, 3:00 AM EST to January 29, 3:30 AM EST
Where: Southern Saratoga forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 43.107, -73.864 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Western Albany

When: January 28, 3:00 AM EST to January 29, 3:30 AM EST
Where: Western Albany forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 42.600, -73.974 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Eastern Albany

When: January 28, 3:00 AM EST to January 29, 3:30 AM EST
Where: Eastern Albany forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 42.600, -73.974 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Western Rensselaer

When: January 28, 3:00 AM EST to January 29, 3:30 AM EST
Where: Western Rensselaer forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 42.711, -73.510 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Western Greene

When: January 28, 3:00 AM EST to 8:00 PM EST
Where: Western Greene forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 42.277, -74.123 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Eastern Greene

When: January 28, 3:00 AM EST to 8:00 PM EST
Where: Eastern Greene forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 42.277, -74.123 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Western Columbia

When: January 28, 3:00 AM EST to 8:00 PM EST
Where: Western Columbia forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 42.250, -73.632 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Eastern Columbia

When: January 28, 3:00 AM EST to 8:00 PM EST
Where: Eastern Columbia forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 42.250, -73.632 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Western Ulster

When: January 28, 3:00 AM EST to 8:00 PM EST
Where: Western Ulster forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 41.888, -74.259 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Eastern Ulster

When: January 28, 3:00 AM EST to 8:00 PM EST
Where: Eastern Ulster forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 41.888, -74.259 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Weather, Eastern Rensselaer

When: January 28, 3:00 AM EST to January 29, 3:30 AM EST
Where: Eastern Rensselaer forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 42.711, -73.510 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Weather, Western Dutchess

When: January 28, 3:00 AM EST to 8:00 PM EST
Where: Western Dutchess forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 41.765, -73.743 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Weather, Eastern Dutchess

When: January 28, 3:00 AM EST to 8:00 PM EST
Where: Eastern Dutchess forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 41.765, -73.743 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Hamilton

When: January 28, 4:00 AM EST to January 29, 3:30 AM EST
Where: Hamilton forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 43.661, -74.497 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Southern Herkimer

When: January 28, 4:00 AM EST to January 29, 3:30 AM EST
Where: Southern Herkimer forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 43.420, -74.962 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Southern Fulton

When: January 28, 4:00 AM EST to January 29, 3:30 AM EST
Where: Southern Fulton forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 43.114, -74.422 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Montgomery

When: January 28, 4:00 AM EST to January 29, 3:30 AM EST
Where: Montgomery forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 42.902, -74.440 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Northern Saratoga

When: January 28, 4:00 AM EST to January 29, 3:30 AM EST
Where: Northern Saratoga forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 43.107, -73.864 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Northern Warren

When: January 28, 4:00 AM EST to January 29, 3:30 AM EST
Where: Northern Warren forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 43.561, -73.846 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Northern Washington

When: January 28, 4:00 AM EST to January 29, 3:30 AM EST
Where: Northern Washington forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 43.314, -73.431 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Northern Fulton

When: January 28, 4:00 AM EST to January 29, 3:30 AM EST
Where: Northern Fulton forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 43.114, -74.422 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Southern Washington

When: January 28, 4:00 AM EST to January 29, 3:30 AM EST
Where: Southern Washington forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 43.314, -73.431 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Southeast Warren

When: January 28, 4:00 AM EST to January 29, 3:30 AM EST
Where: Southeast Warren forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 43.561, -73.846 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Weather, Northern Herkimer

When: January 28, 4:00 AM EST to January 29, 3:30 AM EST
Where: Northern Herkimer forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 43.420, -74.962 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

What these are

Winter Storm: A storm that brought snow, sleet or freezing rain at warning levels, usually over several hours or days.
Winter Weather: Snow, sleet or freezing rain below warning levels that still caused disruption, damage or casualties.

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

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in New York in 2009 Every state in 2009 This day in weather history Warnings in New York, January 2009

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: 151142, 151143, 151144, 151145, 151146, 151147, 151148, 151149, 151150, 151151, 151152, 151153, 151154, 151159, 151160, 151161, 151135, 151136, 151137, 151138, 151139, 151140, 151141, 151155, 151156, 151157, 151158.