F1 tornado hits Buffalo Metro

[conestogo_flood]

I've been watching the live coverage on Buffalo's WGRZ News 2 station since the tornado warning was issued.

There has been a sizeable tornado in Cheektowaga, New York at 3pm. It was about as wide as a football field. it touched down on the New York State Thruway flipping cars, and moved into a construction area and Wal-Mart. There was also golf ball size hail in Buffalo east to Warsaw in Wyoming County. The tornado warning for Erie County including Buffalo expired at 345 pm cdt. Damage estimates according to the meteorologist is F1-F2 maybe.

This is interesting, continuing coverage.

[conestogo_flood]

http://www.wgrz.com/

The Television Station website. Nothing yet.

[TexasStooge]

Just when the East Coast couldn't be in anymore trouble than they have been with the flooding rains.

[conestogo_flood]

There is damage on Walden Ave.

A construction trailor like a mobile home is in the middle of the road, the road is closed.

[conestogo_flood]

The warning message... NOT CURRENT

TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BUFFALO NY
300 PM EDT FRI JUN 30 2006

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BUFFALO HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
ERIE COUNTY IN WESTERN NEW YORK

* UNTIL 330 PM EDT

* AT 253 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED
A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM PRODUCING A TORNADO OVER THE TOWN OF
CHEEKTOWAGA.

THERE HAS BEEN CONFIRMED SIGHTING OF A TORNADO

TAKE SHELTER IMMEDIATELY.

THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM TAKE SHELTER IMMEDIATLEY.

[conestogo_flood]

Significant damage reported at a DHL Warehouse along the I-90 in Cheektowaga, the roof is torn up, debris all over, damage as much as 200 yards away. A tractor trailor is flipped and torn up on the Thruway.

The story is still developing, damage reports just coming in.

[conestogo_flood]

DAMAGE:

Tractor trailor flipped from the west bound lane to the east bound lane on the New York State Thruway

A roof torn off from a DHL Warehouse along the I-90 in Cheektowaga, debris as far as 200 yards.

Cars picked up on the Thruway.

Construction trailor like a mobile home flipped onto Walden Ave. in Cheektoawaga, the road is closed.

[conestogo_flood]

Comopark Blvd. a large tree was lifted and landed on a restaurant.
Several trees down in the area.
The restaurant sign, a heavy steel sign, was bent.
Possible damage to rail cars on Union Blvd.

[CrazyC83]

http://www.wgrz.com/weather/WxPlus.aspx?aid=&sid=&bw=hi

[conestogo_flood]

1 person injured at a construction site on Walden Ave in Cheektowaga. Not seriously injured so the reports say.

A tractor trailor was pushed into the side of the DHL Warehouse.

[conestogo_flood]

DAMAGE:

Tractor trailor flipped from the west bound lane to the east bound lane on the New York State Thruway

A roof torn off from a DHL Warehouse along the I-90 in Cheektowaga, debris as far as 200 yards.

Cars picked up on the Thruway.

Construction trailor like a mobile home flipped onto Walden Ave. in Cheektoawaga, the road is closed.

Comopark Blvd. a large tree was lifted and landed on a restaurant.
Several trees down in the area.
The restaurant sign, a heavy steel sign, was bent.
Possible damage to rail cars on Union Blvd.

A tractor trailor was pushed into the side of the DHL Warehouse.

1 INJURY. NOT SERIOUS.

[conestogo_flood]

Another minor injury from a person in a car that was lifted.

2 injuries.

[itglobalsecure]

conestogo - My husand is from upstate NY, and I never recall hearing him talk about tornados in that area. I'm assuming this is really really unusual?

[Janice]

Wow, thanks for the info. I will catch it on TV...

[Derek Ortt]

an F2 hit the same area in 1987

[tropicana]

Yes, its a highly unusual occurence in Western New York State, (thanks to the relatively stabilizing effects of the Great Lakes) but if history is our guide, then we do know that it does occur from time to time.

Just yesterday (June 29) a funnel cloud was observed over Markham, Ontario, about 15-20 miles north of Toronto, around 2pm with a severe thunderstorm. The funnel cloud was captured on a camera phone by some construction workers, fortunately, this funnel cloud never did touch the ground.
However, heavy thunderstorms did dump very heavy rain over portions of the city in the afternoon, (reports of 50mm 2inches in 1 hour) , frequent vivid lightning and intensely loud thunderclaps that even scared the pigeons dozens of times. Scattered power outages occurred.

-justin-

[Stephanie]

The weather has been TOO FREAKY in the Northeast/Mid Atlantic lately! That's a pretty big tornado for today's storm and the one in 1987 to hit in that area.

[WindRunner]

WOW . . . hadn't even heard about this, and I just finished watching the news. Guess the national evening news isn't prepared to cover such a recent event, but I'm sure we'll be hearing more about this in the morning.

Looks like the only tornado report is practically on top of the Buffalo radar (2.2nm away), so radar isn't going to do much good to look at - well, except that the storms are moving SE - that's a little odd, but OK. I'll see if I can find anything interesting.

[conestogo_flood]

Above photo of tornado taken by Allan Blachowski.
This photo was taken on Dale Road looking SE toward Broadway & Ludwig.

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/buf/tornado063006/index.php

...TORNADO TOUCHES DOWN IN CHEEKTOWAGA...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS CONFIRMED THROUGH AERIAL AND GROUND
SURVEYS THAT A TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN THE TOWN OF CHEEKTOWAGA
AROUND 300 PM FRIDAY JUNE 30.

BASED ON THE INFORMATION GATHERED THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS
RANKED THE TORNADO AN F1 ON THE FUJITA SCALE WHICH IS DEFINED BY
WINDS SPEEDS OF 73 TO 112 MPH. THE WINDS IN THIS TORNADO WERE
ESTIMATED AT 100 TO 110 MPH WITH A PATH LENGTH OF THREE MILES AND A
PATH WIDTH OF 75 YARDS. THE TORNADO INITIALLY TOUCHED DOWN ON WALDEN
AVENUE NEAR HARLEM ROAD AND TRAVELED FROM THE NORTHWEST TO THE
SOUTHEAST THROUGH THE TOWN OF CHEEKTOWAGA.

ON WALDEN AVENUE A CONSTRUCTION TRAILER WAS MOVED SEVERAL HUNDRED
FEET. THE WORKER IN THE TRAILER SUFFERED MINOR INJURIES. AS THE
TORNADO MOVED ACROSS THE NEW YORK STATE THRUWAY IT LIFTED A TRACTOR
TRAILER AND DEPOSITED IT ON ITS SIDE ACROSS THE JERSEY BARRIER.
THE DRIVER OF THE TRAILER SUFFERED A BROKEN LEG.

THE TORNADO CONTINUED ON ITS SOUTHEAST TREK DAMAGING A 20 BY 30 FOOT
SECTION OF A WALL ON A WAREHOUSE AND THEN DOWNED TREES AS IT
CROSSED THROUGH CENTRAL CHEEKTOWAGA. THE TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN
SEVERAL TIMES ALONG ITS PATH.

ITS FINAL TOUCHDOWN WAS AT THE PARKSIDE VILLAGE MOBILE HOME PARK
AROUND 310 PM WHERE THREE MOBILE HOMES SUSTAINED SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE
AND SEVERAL OTHERS SUSTAINED MINOR DAMAGE.

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PARTNERED WITH ERIE COUNTY SHERIFFS
OFFICE...ERIE COUNTY EMERGENCY SERVICES...TOWN OF CHEEKTOWAGA
EMERGENCY SERVICES AND THE CHEEKTOWAGA POLICE DEPARTMENT TO
COMPLETE THE AERIAL AND GROUND SURVEYS.

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/buf/tornado063006/index.php

[Stephanie]

Great picture!!