Quiet, more comfortable weather settles into the Finger Lakes

After a near-miss on Tuesday, the weather will settle down in the Finger Lakes for a few days.

Quieter weather into the weekend

The cold front and low pressure system that brought the risk for severe storms on Tuesday has cleared the Finger Lakes region. Clouds associated with the front will remain in the vicinity for much of Wednesday. A shower across the southern Finger Lakes and Southern Tier cannot be totally ruled out either.

Generally speaking though, the weather on Wednesday will be quiet and comfortable. Temperatures will rise into the upper 70s and low 80s with a few glimpses of the sun this afternoon. The humidity levels will be refreshing for a change, with dew points in the upper 50s and low 60s.

Skies will turn partly cloudy tonight and temperatures will slide back into the 60s. Thursday should be warmer, with highs into the 80s.

A small disturbance will move through the region on Thursday as well, leading to a few scattered, non-severe thunderstorms.

Friday and Saturday both look primarily dry, but with increasing temperatures. A strong cold front will move through sometime later Sunday with another round of showers and storms.

Tuesday, August 16 storm summary

Thankfully, for the most part, the severe weather scenario on Tuesday ended up not reaching its potential. Storms did not really pack much of a punch until reaching the eastern Finger Lakes, where frequent lightning and a few strong winds gusts occurred.

Further north and east, things got a bit more serious in a glimpse of what could have been. A supercell thunderstorm formed over Oswego County and produced an unconfirmed, but very likely tornado. The National Weather Service will be investigating the storm damage today to determine what occurred.

The tornado picture shown in the top-graphic was sent to me last night from eastern Oswego county, right on the edge of the area I had marked as the greatest tornado potential. While the rest of the area did not live up to the ‘enhanced’ risk threat I had forecast, I was pleased to see people sharing the message of no-hype, uncertainty, and preparedness.

As I mentioned Monday, everything has to come together just right for significant severe weather. In our region, it is rare to get everything in place, and the uncertainty is almost always high as a result until the storms are ongoing. We definitely dodged a bullet on Tuesday.

Technical Notes

With the severe weather threat yesterday, FLXweather.com had over 27,000 page loads. Each page load sends anywhere from 50-200 requests to the web server. With the influx of traffic, my server was overwhelmed at first. Error messages and slow loading times were common.

My web-host worked diligently through the morning and early afternoon to track down the problems and make improvements. By the mid afternoon, my website stabilized. We should not see those problems again. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Likewise, you may have noticed that the radar on FLXweather.com was lagging behind what was actually happening. I contacted the radar vendor and they have been working on a fix. Once again, during active weather, lag builds up and causes the radar to delay. I was assured they are working on a major update which will come shortly, resulting in a much faster, more current radar.

It is so exciting to see Finger Lakes Weather continue to grow. Thank you for your support and for using my website and services!