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UPDATE, July 11, 8:45 a.m: National Grid said the strong but short-lived thunderstorm that rolled over Saratoga Springs last evening is still having an effect on power inside the city this morning. Their outage map shows customers without power downtown and in the Geyser Crest neighborhood.
“We experienced storm activity, heavy rain, wind and lightning last night. When we get heavy rain and wind, trees and branches can come down during and even hours after the actual storm. This can damage our lines which is what we have seen overnight into this morning,” wrote Patrick Stella in an email to the Dispatch. He is National Grid’s communications manager, for Eastern New York.
“We have crews working all of the damage and have been picking up customers through the morning,” he wrote.
Stella suggested that people check the outage map, here. Click on “Summary” to the left, and “Outages By County” you can see breakdown of current outages updated every 15 minutes, Stella wrote.
Original Post July 11, 7:20 a.m.: A fast moving thunderstorm that dumped as much as 1.11 inches of rain and marble-sized hail in Saratoga Springs Thursday evening also downed a tree that blocked two lanes of southbound traffic on the Interstate-87 Adirondack Northway, just south of Exit 14. The brunt of the highly localized storm lasted about 15 minutes and turned some Spa City streets briefly into rivers.
At about 7:30 p.m. Thursday, the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning until 8:30 p.m. for the region, indicating that wind gusts could reach as high as 60 mph, though none that high were reported, the NWS said Thursday evening.
They had at about that time received the report of the downed tree, according to NWS documents. At some point thereafter, Police forced traffic off the highway at Exit 14.
By 8:30 southbound traffic on the Northway was at a standstill starting at Exit 14. Cars could be seen backing up the on-ramp from the Exit 14 southbound interchange, carefully re-entering Union Avenue. By 9:30 the exit had reopened.
According to NWS meteorologist Steve DiRienzo early reports indicated Saratoga Springs got as much as 1.11 inches in the city and a top wind gust of 43 mph was reported on Crescent Avenue in Saratoga Springs. He explained that those were early reports taken by weather spotters in the city.
In downtown Saratoga, a portion of the construction fence at Division Street and Broadway had been blown over. In the block or two west — downhill — of Broadway, many intersections were flooded by the fast moving storm.
Marble sized hail fell in downtown.
The National Grid Power Outage map showed limited power outages in Saratoga Springs.
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