Waterspout — The Islands To Vermilion Oh, Lake Erie

2024-07-25 · near The Islands, The Islands To Vermilion Oh, Lake Erie

Event narrative

Waterspout photographed offshore Cedar Point Amusement Park. Location of waterspout approximated via radar data.

Wider weather episode

At the surface, a low moved northeastward from Georgian Bay to central QC during the late morning of the 24th through late morning of the 25th. Simultaneously, the trailing cold front swept eastward and southeastward from far-southwestern ON, far-western Lake Erie, and northwest OH to northwestern New England, southeastern NY, northeastern and southwestern PA, and the Mid OH River Valley. Behind the cold front, a trough axis moved generally southward across Lake Erie during the morning hours of the 25th.

Ahead of the cold front, a cluster of multicell thunderstorms generated gale-force peak convective wind gusts along the Cleveland lakeshore as the storms encountered moderate effective bulk shear, MUCAPE, and DCAPE, respectively, during the afternoon of the 24th. Behind the cold front, isolated multicell thunderstorms impacted western Lake Erie during the morning of the 25th as the aforementioned surface trough axis encountered weak to moderate MUCAPE and moderate effective bulk shear. The relatively-strong updraft of one of these storms managed to spawn a non-mesocyclonic waterspout near Cedar Point.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.5086, -82.6300)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1212554. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.