Flooding and Rip Current Concerns from Chantal; Lingering Flood Watches in Central Texas

Chantal is now a Tropical Depression. Flash flood concerns continue across portions of central North Carolina into Monday. Life-threatening surf and rip currents conditions are expected to continue at beaches along the U.S. East Coast from northeastern Florida to the Mid-Atlantic states during the next day or so. Flood Watches and recovery continue across central Texas. Read More >

Western New York Weather History

JULY 31

1967

A man was struck and killed by lightning in Amherst, Erie County, at the Audubon golf course. Lightning also knocked down another. Two houses were heavily damaged by lightning about the same time in Niagara county.

1999

Violent thunderstorms ripped across western New York and the Finger Lakes region during the evening hours. The strong thunderstorms downed trees and power lines and left hundreds of thousands without power. Several roads were blocked by fallen debris. Several of the falling trees caused damage to houses and automobiles. Trees were reported downed in Buffalo, North Tonawanda, Rochester, Henrietta, Bergen, Otto, Attica, Fair Haven, Palmyra, Avon, Oswego and Lakewood. At Beaver Island State Park, 12 people were injured when gust front winds downed a 35 foot tree onto a table of picnickers. Seven adults and five children, ranging in age from 5 to 35, were taken to the hospital. Most suffered cuts and bruises. Eleven were treated and released. One woman was held overnight with shoulder and upper back injuries. In Monroe County, at the Freeman Park in Mumford four people at a company picnic were injured when high winds picked up a tent and dragged it through the crowd. They were treated and released from an area hospital.

2000

A thunderstorm crossed Chautauqua county during the early overnight hours and produced damaging winds in the town of Arkwright. Trees were uprooted and animal pens tipped over. A 26' camping trailer on Partridge road was flipped over several times by the wind and landed fifty feet away from its original position. A garage also on Partridge road sustained damage when the door was blown out.

Slow moving thunderstorms developed over the western southern tier and parts of the Finger Lakes region during the afternoon. Between 2.5 and 3.0 inches fell in less than four hours onto already saturated ground. In Jamestown, Chautauqua county, Routes 60 and 430 were closed for several hours as flood waters inundated them. In Salamanca, Cattaraugus county, which had experienced flash flooding just a couple of days before, the mayor declared a State of Emergency with no unnecessary travel in the city. The eastbound lanes of Interstate 86 were closed from Salamanca to Olean due to mudslides. Roads were flooded throughout the city. About one hundred basements were flooded. Three homes were destroyed while another sustained major damage. About fifteen people were stranded at the Red Garter Playhouse after a road washed out. In Ontario county, roads were flooded in Canandaigua. In Geneva, a mudslide pushed a cottage downhill and over the breakwall of Seneca Lake. The cottage, valued at over $100,000, was not salvageable.

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