Thanksgiving Day Weather for Albany, NY & My Reminisces of Working on TGD

A brief climatology of Thanksgiving Day (TGD) weather for Albany, NY:

The warmest 1883 a high of 68 degrees and a low of 56, giving the warmest daily mean of 62.
The coldest was 1901 with a maximum temperature of  19 degrees, as well as, the coldest daily mean temperature of 15 degrees. The lowest minimum temperature was 5 degrees set in 1972.

The wettest TGD for Albany: 1886 - 1.77 inches of liquid equivalent precipitation ( 8" of snow was observed on this day).

Not too far behind this  particular TGD was 1971 with its 1.64 inches of melted precipitation which on this holiday was all snow and the most for Albany for TGD: 21.8 inches! (The snow actually started on Thanksgiving Eve ( the night of the 24th) thus the storm total was 22.5".)

Looking at the 20 greatest snowstorms of all-time for Albany this snowstorm  ranks as the 8th greatest single snowfall amount from one storm and for November's top 10  snowstorms it ranks as #1.


First let me say, I usually work most Thanksgiving Days  and I really don't mind it either. I'll work my "normal" shift that entails me doing NEWS10 in the Morning and NEWS10 at Noon then home for TGD dinner in the afternoon.

The "joke" about working TGD is that as far as the weather goes its an every other year thing, that is on alternating years the weather is either "active" or "benign".  (Last year's TGD weather was "benign" this year's may be "active" or at the very least not the best weather for the holiday.  I'll be updating this blog a lot over this weekend and upcoming days about this year's holiday and post holiday weather as it does look "interesting" for sure.)

Now for a bit of reminiscing on what had to be one of the wildest days that I ever have worked at WTEN . It was on Thanksgiving Day 2004!

The morning was warm and muggy for late November and I remembered driving in to work through areas of patchy dense fog and I also remember leaving early to get into work because there was the chance that it could prove to be a busy day.

Here's a bit of a clue as to why: The high temperature that TGD was 64 degrees (the 2nd warmest TGD on record for Albany) the low later that day was 30!

In a nutshell a strong area of low pressure and its associated cold front moves across Eastern NY State and Western New England resulting in a high wind and severe weather event late that Thanksgiving Day morning.
I remember saying on air that early morning to those who were watching that "I am not crazy but there is the chance for severe thunderstorm's this TGD!"

All told nearly 60,000 + customer lost power that day after the severe squalls moved through. Especially hardest hit were Saratoga, Washington and Rensselaer Counties in NY State. The power interruption became th big news story of the day: Folks whose homes were all electric scrambling to find a place to either cook their TGD dinner or somewhere to eat.

Below is a map from SPC on the severe weather reports  for that day along with a list of the reports and a "loop" of the hourly surface reports from that day.

SPC Storm Reports
1200 UTC November 25, 2004 - 1159 UTC November 26, 2004 20041125's Storm Reports

Note: All data are considered preliminary
Tornado Reports (in CSV format)
No reports received
Hail Reports (in CSV format)
Time	Size	Location	County	State	Lat	Lon	Comments
1320	75	OLD FORGE	LACKAWANNA	PA	4137	7574	(BGM)
1512	75	GALWAY	SARATOGA	NY	4302	7403	PENNY SIZE HAIL AT PROVIDENCE (ALY)
Wind Reports (in CSV format)
Time	Speed	Location	County	State	Lat	Lon	Comments
1340	UNK	CARBONDALE	LACKAWANNA	PA	4157	7551	NUMEROUS TREES AND WIRES DOWN (BGM)
1345	UNK	BEACH LAKE	WAYNE	PA	4160	7515	TREES AND WIRES DOWN (BGM)
1345	UNK	EQUINUNK	WAYNE	PA	4185	7522	TREES AND WIRES DOWN. TRAILER FLIPPED. (BGM)
1420	UNK	JEFFERSONVILLE	SULLIVAN	NY	4178	7493	TREES AND WIRES DOWN ACROSS WESTERN AND NORTHERN PARTS OF THE COUNTY (BGM)
1430	UNK	HANCOCK	DELAWARE	NY	4195	7528	TREE DOWN (BGM)
1512	UNK	HURLEY	ULSTER	NY	4191	7406	TREES AND WIRES DOWN (ALY)
1512	UNK	HARDENBURG	ULSTER	NY	4200	7467	TREES AND WIRES DOWN (ALY)
1512	UNK	MALTA	SARATOGA	NY	4297	7379	TREES AND WIRES DOWN (ALY)
1540	UNK	TAGHKANIC	COLUMBIA	NY	4214	7368	TREES DOWN. (ALY)
1545	UNK	SALT POINT	DUTCHESS	NY	4181	7379	TREES AND WIRES DOWN (ALY)
1600	UNK	SADDLE BROOK	BERGEN	NJ	4090	7410	TREES DOWN CAUSING DAMAGE TO PRIVATE HOMES (OKX)
1605	UNK	SCHODACK CENTER	RENSSELAER	NY	4255	7368	TREES DOWN (ALY)
1635	UNK	CLARENDON	RUTLAND	VT	4352	7297	RUTLAND STATE POLICE REPORTED TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN IN CLARENDON AND SHREWSBURY. (BTV)
1635	59	RUTLAND	RUTLAND	VT	4361	7298	(BTV)
1641	UNK	LANESBOROUGH	BERKSHIRE	MA	4252	7323	WIRES DOWN (ALY)
1645	UNK	GOSHEN	ORANGE	NY	4140	7433	TREES AND BILLBOARDS DOWN ON RT.17 AND HARRIMAN DRIVE CAUSING DAMAGE TO COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS (OKX)
1715	UNK	CABOT	WASHINGTON	VT	4441	7231	MIDDLEBURY STATE POLICE REPORTED NUMEROUS TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN NEAR CABOT AND MARSHFIELD. (BTV)
1810	UNK	3 SW LISBON	GRAFTON	NH	4418	7195	LIMBS AND POWERLINES BLOWN DOWN ON MOSES CLARK ROAD. (GYX)
1815	UNK	1 NW LITTLETON	GRAFTON	NH	4432	7178	TREES BLOWN DOWN ON NORTH LITTLETON ROAD. (GYX)
Full report in comma-separated values (CSV) format
Fields marked UNK are unknown
All Times UTC
Wind Gusts in MPH
Hail Sizes in 1/100 of an Inch (75 = 0.75")

Java Loop of surface reports for TGD 2004

An excellent write-up on the severe weather of that day was done by Tom Wasula a meteorologist at the NWSFO in Albany, NY. Here is a link to his write-up: Wind and Severe Wx Event from TGD 2004

In the wake of the severe weather strong NW to W winds prompted wind advisories to be issued for the afternoon and evening hours of that day and to top it all off, after the morning warmth and severe weather many locations across Eastern New York and Western New England saw brief snow showers or flurries that TGD night!

Well its time to check the latest Saturday AM data to see what will or won't happen this upcoming TGD. I'll likely have another blog update later today (probably late tonight).