Our first big low pressure area tracking to our north set us up for some big winds Wednesday. We first were awoken by a line of strong thunderstorms that ripped through CNY in the pre-dawn hours. This line produced a wind gust of 51 mph at Hancock airport, and sporadic damage across CNY. Numerous power outages were reported early Wednesday morning. Frankly, I was a bit surprised that this line held together so well, since it was coming through in the middle of the night. Strong south winds in advance of a cold front pushed temperatures into the low 60s and dewpoints surged into the mid 50s. That provided the fuel to maintain the line as it came through. Some e-mails that came in questioned whether a tornado came through, but to the best of our knowledge it was straight-line winds. Within the line of storms, strong downbursts of air can cause damage in one area, while adjacent communities see nothing.
The real wind, as expected, came in the afternoon, as low pressure moved up the St. Lawrence Valley. Winds gusted to near 50 mph again at Hancock airport, and we had a wind gust of 56 mph reported from our weather watcher, Betsy Hughes, in Fair Haven as well as on the SUNY Oswego campus. Waves on Lake Ontario were 10-15 feet. More power outages occurred, which did surprise me a little bit. Usually we can handle that type of wind, but apparently the fall foliage hasn't given up its strength and we ended up with a couple thousand power outages in Onondaga and Oswego counties.
As I write this at 10:45 Wednesday evening, we're still seeing peak winds of 30-35 mph, but I would expect those speeds to come down after midnight. Lingering lake effect showers will also come to an end.
Enjoy Thursday. It'll be a much nicer day, with the return of some sun. I would expect a northwest breeze to kick in a bit during the afternoon, but all in all it should be a fine fall day.
-Dave
