National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Overview

An unprecedented heavy rain event/rain storm impacted eastern NY and western New England 28-30 July 2026. Scattered to numerous instances of flash flooding occurred across eastern NY 29 July 2026 in the morning with the Greater Capital Region, eastern Catskills, northern portions of the mid-Hudson Valley especially hit hard.  A closed/cutoff low was over NY and New England.  The mid and upper low captured the double-barrel low pressure system with one wave over eastern/southern NY on the morning 29 July 2026 with a secondary coastal low southeast of Long Island.  Meso-vortices migrated around the mid and upper level low over the region.  A tremendous fetch of deep moisture occurred from the Atlantic and Gulf.  Precipitable water anomalies were 2-3 standard deviations above normal in the 1.4-1.8” range.  Freezing levels were high in the 11-13 kft AGL range.  Very efficient rainfall processes occurred with more of a cool season style synoptic system with an impressive stratiform rainband with initially embedded convection in the low/mid level deformation zone of the system. Intense rainfall rates of 1-3"/hr and thunderstorms/heavy showers repeatedly moved or trained over the same area.  The Greater Capital Region/northern reaches of the mid-Hudson Valley and eastern Catskills were especially hard hit, receiving 6-12" of rainfall.

Impressive, record-breaking rainfall amounts occurred in a 2-day stretch, though some of the rainfall mainly occurred in 12-24 hours.  It was the second-wettest calendar date all-time for Albany with daily records dating back to 1874.  5.45" occurred on July  29th at Albany, shattering the old record of 1.90" set in 1974. This was the wettest July day on record, with records dating back to 1874. This calendar day total is 2nd only to the 5.60" that occurred on Sept 16, 1999 with TS Floyd moisture.  Also, a 2-day total of 7.00" occurred for the Albany Airport from July 28–30, 2026. Portions of southwest Rensselaer and northern Columbia Counties were also hit very hard. The NYS Mesonet network recorded 11.79" of rainfall at Schodack and 11.47" at Kinderhook.  This was a 1 in a 1000 year precipitation/heavy rain event.  Poughkeepsie also had 2.68" of rainfall on July 29th which broke the old record of 1.86" in 1971.

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