Thunderstorm Wind in Erie County, Pennsylvania

Several trees downed in Waterford.

At the surface, an occluded low wobbled east-northeastward from southeastern ND to central Lake Superior during the early morning through late evening of May 16th. This caused a warm front to sweep northeastward across northwest PA during the early morning and then a cold front swept generally southeastward across northwest PA during the mid-morning. The cold front then retreated generally northward as a warm front across northwest PA during the mid to late evening of the 16th as a separate low along the front moved generally northeastward from the Lower MO Valley to southwestern Lower MI.

During the early morning of the 16th and in association with the first surface warm front, a line of multicell thunderstorms produced hail up to nickel-size and isolated straight-line wind damage in Erie County as the storms persisted generally eastward. The ambient environment exhibited moderate MUCAPE and moderate to strong effective bulk shear. Then, during the early evening of the 16th and ahead of the second surface warm front, a multicell thunderstorm generated isolated straight-line wind damage in southwestern Crawford County as the storm persisted northeastward amidst moderate effective bulk shear and weak to moderate MUCAPE.