Christmas Eve could bring floods to region
Rain Thursday evening is expected to melt snowpack
Christmas Eve in the Capital Region will be accompanied by flooding as up to two inches of rain is likely to fall on Thursday evening, melting the snowpack leftover from last week’s winter storm and increasing the likelihood for significant flooding in the region.
“It does look like this moderate rain will continue into Christmas morning,” said Brett Rathbun, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albany. “We do expect that there’s going to be some pretty significant melting of the snowpack.”
There’s around 1½ to 2½ inches of liquid in the snowpack itself, Rathbun said.
The National Weather Service issued a flood watch in Albany County for Thursday, saying the rainfall could “cause urban and flash flooding ” and warning that “flows on rivers may increase quickly and rise above flood stage.”
The flood watch applies to surrounding counties as far north as the southern Adirondacks.
In addition, the National Weather Service issued a high wind warning for eastern Rensselaer County, eastern Dutchess County and eastern Columbia County.
“The biggest question with the flooding aspect will be … how much liquid in the snowpack is going to melt?” Rathbun said. “We don’t believe that the entire snowpack will melt, but a significant amount will.”
Rathbun said the National Weather Service can’t rule out any river flooding.
“Definitely there could be some flooding along the Mohawk and Hudson,” Rathbun said. He added that it will primarily be determined by how much rain falls, because there is not much snow and ice on the rivers.