High Wind — Orleans, New York

2020-11-15 to 2020-11-16 · Orleans, New York

Wider weather episode

A rapidly intensifying low pressure system advanced through the western Great Lakes and eventually spun up toward James Bay. This pushed a cold front across the area during the latter half of November 15. Along the cold front, shallow convection developed with widespread non-severe hail and widespread wind gusts over 60 mph. In the wake of the front, a second and longer-lasting period of non-convective high winds persisted through much of the evening and into the overnight east of Lake Ontario. Widespread damage was reported from both the thunderstorm winds and non-thunderstorm winds. Lake Erie topped 11.13 feet at Buffalo due to the first seiche with the frontal boundary thunderstorms then secondarily topped 10.34 feet with the non-convective wind increase in the evening. This resulted in flooding and some evacuations in Angola, Hamburg, and the Old First Ward in Buffalo. Selected peak wind gusts during the afternoon and evening include 60 mph at Wellsville, 69 mph in Fredonia, 69 mph at the Buffalo Coast Guard, 67 mph at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport, 58 mph in Batavia, 58 mph at Fort Drum, 60 mph in Brockport, 62 mph at Niagara Falls Airport, and 59 mph in Warsaw.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 920799. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.