A powerful batch of severe thunderstorms rolled across the Western New York region late Friday night and early Saturday morning.
The National Weather Service had issued severe thunderstorm warnings for northern Erie County until 4:45 a.m. Saturday. Weather Doppler radar had indicated a severe thunderstorm cable of producing damaging winds of up to 60-miles-an-hour.
The storm moved northern Erie and Niagara County including Buffalo and nearby suburbs of West Seneca, Depew, Lancaster and Alden. It also moved through the Tonawanda’s, Amherst and Kenmore.
The storms brought in heavy rains, strong, gusty damaging winds and frequent lightening.
In Snyder, a large tree toppled across the driveway of a home of a WNED employee, damaging his vehicle.
In North Tonawanda, the American Red Crosshas opened a shelter for residents at the North Tonawanda High School at 405 Meadow Drive where thousands of residents are without power. The Red Cross has volunteers from its Disaster Workforce mobilized. The shelter is located at 405-Meadow Drive.
There is a travel ban in place in Niagara County. The Niagara County Sheriff’s Office is advising residents to stay of the roadways due to severe weather.
The storms knocked down power lines down, trees down and road flooding on various streets that are reportedly impassible.
There were about 17,354 National Grid customers without power in Niagara County and more than 5,000 in Erie County.
In the city of Buffalo, the Red Cross is assisting a family at a home on Austin Street in Black Rock where a tree fell onto a home. The Red Cross is also assisting an elderly man in Lackawanna where his a trailer home was destroyed by a fire.
According to the National Weather Service, a peak gust of wind reached 66-mph at the Niagara Falls Airport and 51 mph at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.
A cold front moved into the region with the storms giving much needed relief to the hot weather and temperatures that remained in the low 90’s.
About four inches of rain was measured. Some scattered showers were lingering Saturday morning. It will be partly cloudy with a high around 80, with winds of 10 to 20-miles-an-hour.