diff --git a/storage/metric/memory.go b/storage/metric/memory.go
index 1197e58fc1..6187b79230 100644
--- a/storage/metric/memory.go
+++ b/storage/metric/memory.go
@@ -218,6 +218,70 @@ func (s *memorySeriesStorage) getOrCreateSeries(metric model.Metric, fingerprint
 	return series
 }
 
+func (s *memorySeriesStorage) Flush(flushOlderThan time.Time, queue chan<- model.Samples) {
+	emptySeries := []model.Fingerprint{}
+
+	s.RLock()
+	for fingerprint, stream := range s.fingerprintToSeries {
+		finder := func(i int) bool {
+			return stream.values[i].Timestamp.After(flushOlderThan)
+		}
+
+		stream.Lock()
+
+		i := sort.Search(len(stream.values), finder)
+		toArchive := stream.values[:i]
+		toKeep := stream.values[i:]
+		queued := make(model.Samples, 0, len(toArchive))
+
+		for _, value := range toArchive {
+			queued = append(queued, model.Sample{
+				Metric:    stream.metric,
+				Timestamp: value.Timestamp,
+				Value:     value.Value,
+			})
+		}
+
+		// BUG(all): this can deadlock if the queue is full, as we only ever clear
+		// the queue after calling this method:
+		// https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/issues/275
+		queue <- queued
+
+		stream.values = toKeep
+
+		if len(toKeep) == 0 {
+			emptySeries = append(emptySeries, fingerprint)
+		}
+		stream.Unlock()
+	}
+	s.RUnlock()
+
+	s.Lock()
+	for _, fingerprint := range emptySeries {
+		if len(s.fingerprintToSeries[fingerprint].values) == 0 {
+			s.dropSeries(&fingerprint)
+		}
+	}
+	s.Unlock()
+}
+
+// Drop all references to a series, including any samples.
+func (s *memorySeriesStorage) dropSeries(fingerprint *model.Fingerprint) {
+	series, ok := s.fingerprintToSeries[*fingerprint]
+	if !ok {
+		return
+	}
+	for k, v := range series.metric {
+		labelPair := model.LabelPair{
+			Name:  k,
+			Value: v,
+		}
+		delete(s.labelPairToFingerprints, labelPair)
+		delete(s.labelNameToFingerprints, k)
+	}
+	delete(s.fingerprintToSeries, *fingerprint)
+}
+
 // Append raw samples, bypassing indexing. Only used to add data to views,
 // which don't need to lookup by metric.
 func (s *memorySeriesStorage) appendSamplesWithoutIndexing(fingerprint *model.Fingerprint, samples model.Values) {
diff --git a/storage/metric/tiered.go b/storage/metric/tiered.go
index c550c75e5c..b352612cb5 100644
--- a/storage/metric/tiered.go
+++ b/storage/metric/tiered.go
@@ -262,38 +262,10 @@ func (t *TieredStorage) Flush() {
 }
 
 func (t *TieredStorage) flushMemory(ttl time.Duration) {
-	t.memoryArena.RLock()
-	defer t.memoryArena.RUnlock()
-
-	cutOff := time.Now().Add(-1 * ttl)
+	flushOlderThan := time.Now().Add(-1 * ttl)
 
 	log.Println("Flushing...")
-
-	for _, stream := range t.memoryArena.fingerprintToSeries {
-		finder := func(i int) bool {
-			return stream.values[i].Timestamp.After(cutOff)
-		}
-
-		stream.Lock()
-
-		i := sort.Search(len(stream.values), finder)
-		toArchive := stream.values[:i]
-		toKeep := stream.values[i:]
-		queued := make(model.Samples, 0, len(toArchive))
-
-		for _, value := range toArchive {
-			queued = append(queued, model.Sample{
-				Metric:    stream.metric,
-				Timestamp: value.Timestamp,
-				Value:     value.Value,
-			})
-		}
-
-		t.appendToDiskQueue <- queued
-
-		stream.values = toKeep
-		stream.Unlock()
-	}
+	t.memoryArena.Flush(flushOlderThan, t.appendToDiskQueue)
 
 	queueLength := len(t.appendToDiskQueue)
 	if queueLength > 0 {