Thunderstorm Wind — Onondaga, New York

2025-08-24 · near Westvale, Onondaga, New York

Event narrative

Strong thunderstorm winds led to a large tent collapsing outside of Gate 4 of the Great New York State Fair and brought down a utility wire onto State Fair Boulevard. The storm collapsed a large jumbotron at the NY State Police exhibit while also downing trees in a part of the fairgrounds. There were dozens of instances of mostly minor damage from fair vendors, though some heavily damaged tents or awnings. Someone was injured when a rope-tethered plank of wood got caught by the wind and struck them.

Wider weather episode

A slow-moving cold front triggered the development of scattered showers and thunderstorms across the area. An unstable environment with sufficient wind shear allows some storms to turn severe, producing damaging wind gusts and hail. One of the severe storms moved over the fairgrounds during the Great New York Fair leading to scattered damage on the grounds and one injury. Storms also led to the formation of a waterspout off of Lewis Point on Oneida Lake.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (43.0784, -76.2222)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1289529. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.