Thunderstorms in the North Central U.S.; Dangerous Heat in Texas

There is a severe weather and isolated flooding threat from the Central to Northern Plains tonight into early Thursday. The severe weather threat will progress eastward to the Upper Mississippi Valley/Great Lakes into the Lower Ohio Valley Thursday. Major to extreme heat will continue to impact much of southern Texas into next week, where widespread record-breaking temperatures are possible. Read More >

Western New York Weather History

OCTOBER 14

1983

The passage of a strong cold front brought hail and high winds to western New York. A peak gust of 60 mph from the west was recorded in the afternoon and numerous reports of downed trees and power lines caused much damage throughout western New York. Minutes preceding the storm, a brilliant double rainbow was visible...the arc extending from horizon to horizon. A Niagara Mohawk spokesman reported the most serious power failure occurred in Amherst where 2200 homes were blacked out. Between 400 and 500 New York telephone customers lost service in areas of Hamburg and between Williamsville and Lancaster. The intense storm system sent strong gusts of wind sweeping through the Buffalo area, providing the season's first official snow on the 14th only a day after the area tied a heat record of 82 degrees on the 13th.

1989

Severe thunderstorms uprooted large trees and blew down scores of power lines in Niagara, Orleans and Genesee counties. Thunderstorm winds tore off siding of the Somerset power plant where New York State Electric and Gas monitored winds at 105 mph. A house trailer in the town of Harltand was blown off its foundation and destroyed. In Medina the hardest hit area, all 7000 residents were without power. Part of the roof on Medina’s armory was peeled off by the storm and thrown on the street. Trees as large as six feet in diameter were uprooted or knocked down by winds estimated in the 90 mph range. A state of emergency was declared in the village and no vehicles were allowed in or out. New York Telephone reported having to replace 40 poles and 10,000 feet of cable in Medina. The violent winds and hail damaged at least 750,000 to a million bushels of apples in Niagara and Orleans counties. In Genesee county, power was knocked out in the towns of Oakfield, Alabama, Elba, Byron, Bergen and Pembroke. The thunderstorms continued across the Finger Lakes region accompanied by high winds, lightning, hail and heavy rain. Numerous large trees were downed. Power failures were widespread with Rochester Gas and Electric reporting outages to tens of thousands of customers. The violent winds toppled the steeple off a church in Canandaigua.

2001

Deep low pressure across Hudson Bay pulled a strong cold front across the Niagara Frontier and the western southern tier during the late afternoon. The strong southwest winds ahead of the cold front downed trees and power lines in Geneva, South Wales, Jamestown, Belfast and Dunkirk. Scattered power outages were reported.