Marine Thunderstorm Wind — Reno Beach To the Islands Oh, Lake Erie

2023-08-23 · near The Islands, Reno Beach To the Islands Oh, Lake Erie

Event narrative

Cleveland Water Alliance Buoy, about one-mile north of Port Clinton, recorded a peak convective gust of 47-mph from nearby and outflow-dominant thunderstorms.

Wider weather episode

At the surface, a low drifted east-southeastward across southern MN during the early afternoon of August 23rd through the predawn hours of August 24th. Simultaneously, a nearly-stationary front extended generally eastward from the low to central Lower MI and then south-southeastward through southeastern Lower MI to northwestern OH. This front was the eastern edge of an unusually-hot and very humid air mass concentrated over and near the central Great Plains and Lower OH Valley.

Aloft, a westerly low-level jet (LLJ) at and near 850 mb underwent very moist isentropic ascent aloft along the upper-reaches of the front. The LLJ triggered two thunderstorm systems known as mesoscale convective systems (MCS's) over and near Lake Erie. These MCS's occurred amidst steepening mid-level lapse rates near 7C-8C/km, a tight westerly gradient in MUCAPE with weak to strong MUCAPE over the lake, and moderate to strong effective bulk shear. Simultaneously, the MCS's propagated generally westward (i.e. into the LLJ) as individual thunderstorm cells moved generally southeastward or southward across Lake Erie. The easternmost MCS transitioned slowly from elevated to surface-based as it propagated into a warmer and more humid low-level air mass, and its effective inflow layer transitioned from elevated to surface-based. Both MCS's generated multiple gale-force and storm-force peak convective gusts along the OH shore of Lake Erie before moving away from the lake.

During the predawn hours of the 24th through wee hours of the 25th, the surface low drifted east-southeastward from southern MN to near the border of southeastern Lower MI and northwestern OH. Simultaneously, the warm front preceding the low shifted northward and eastward as a warm front, and reached southern ON and Lake Ontario. The cold front trailing the low moved south-southeastward from the northern Great Plains to northern IN and IL, and southern IA and NE.

As the warm front advanced northeastward, convergence and moist ascent along the surface front triggered a cluster of thunderstorms amidst moderate MUCAPE, relatively-steep mid-level lapse rates near 7C/km, and moderate effective bulk shear. The cluster of storms persisted south-southeastward across Lake Erie and generated a gale-force peak convective gust along the Cuyahoga County, OH shore during the mid-afternoon hours. During the late evening of the 24th through wee hours of the 25th, another MCS associated with the aforementioned cold front persisted generally southeastward across Lake Erie and generated gale-force to hurricane-force peak convective gusts along the OH shore as the MCS encountered moderate to strong effective bulk shear and MUCAPE, respectively, and steep mid-level lapse rates near 7C-8C/km.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.5320, -82.9410)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1159883. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.