BUFFALO, N.Y. —
The past couple of weeks have brought life-threatening severe weather to the High Plains and Midwest. This season, the worst of the weather has, for the most part, been confined to the traditional “tornado alley”.
But it doesn’t always happen that way.
May 31st, 1985 was one of the most violent weather days on record for the Northeast and Ohio Valley. A rare and dangerous mix of the right weather ingredients spawned 43 confirmed tornadoes in parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and Ontario. Two of those tornadoes caused an estimated 3 million dollars in damage in Chautauqua County in Western New York.
In addition to the tornadoes, very large hail was reported in Erie and Niagara Counties. Power outages were widespread as thousands of trees were blown over by straight-line winds. Thankfully, no deaths were reported in Western New York that day, but 90 were killed elsewhere during the course of the outbreak.
Learn more about what made the atmosphere so volatile in this week’s Heather’s Weather Whys.
New episodes of Heather’s Weather Whys are posted to the WGRZ YouTube channel every Wednesday evening. You can also catch shortened versions of each episode on Channel 2 News at 5:30 every Thursday.
