Event Overview
The first significant severe weather event of the 2025 season occurred on Tuesday, April 29 as hot, moist air pushed into the region ahead of a cold front. Storms were supported by strong winds aloft, which helped supercells organize into line segments.
Here are some statistics about the event for the 17 counties Finger Lakes Weather serves:
- 22 Severe Thunderstorm Warnings issued by the National Weather Service
- 1 Tornado Warning issued
- Level 3 – Enhanced severe thunderstorm risk from the Storm Prediction Center
- 61 Wind Damage/Severe Wind reports
- 6 Large Hail reports, with a maximum hail size of 1.75″ (Golf Ball) in Warsaw, Wyoming County
- At least 1 injury in Ontario County
FLX Weather’s Response
Communicating the risk of severe thunderstorms is always a difficult task. It is a fine line between over alerting and making people aware of the threat.
The wording I chose to use in my forecasts leading up to this event was “corridors of wind damage”.
As you can see from the storm damage reports, that was a very accurate descriptor to use.
Most of the 17 county area I serve was under a severe thunderstorm warning at some point during the afternoon and evening. Many areas saw multiple warnings, including the tornado warning across spanning central Cayuga Lake.
I activated a Live Blog at 3:50 PM and continued non-stop until 8:14 PM for a total of 4 hours and 24 minutes. During that time, I posted 72 updates.
On average, I posted an update every 3 minutes and 40 seconds!
The live blog chat had 306 comments in it. These were a combination of very useful weather reports, questions and my answers, well wishes for me as the tornadic storm approached my area, and a multitude of thanks for my services. My favorite comment was from “handnheart99”:
Drew, you provide the most thorough, accurate, non-hyped, personalized, timely and KIND service to this entire area. I am grateful for all the work that you do. I doubled my monthly contribution today because I realized that you are not only an information service, you are a mental health service! Thank you!
If you tuned into the Live Blog, let me know how useful it was to you!
And please consider joining the dozens of new monthly donors who made the live blog possible by supporting the 2025 Spring Fund Drive, which is ending soon! Your support is so helpful and necessary to keep FLX Weather running!
Storm Surveys
I have not yet seen any reports from the National Weather Service regarding storm surveys, though I would be surprised if there were not any surveys conducted.
Based on pictures and reports I have seen, which is admittedly not nearly sufficient to make any certain claims, it appears to me that the storm in Barrington, Yates County was most likely a microburst with winds of 8-90 mph. Take that assessment for what it is — a very rough, limited estimate.
I have not gotten enough information from any other areas to make any other guesses.
My point of emphasis with severe weather reporting this year (and beyond) is that damaging winds from a microburst are every bit as dangerous and destructive as 82% of the tornadoes in NY State history. Yet, these damaging wind events are much more common and cover larger areas than our tornadoes.
Whether or not a tornado touches down is mostly irrelevant and more focus, awareness, and education needs to be put on microburst events.
I will make additional updates as information comes from the National Weather Service as is prudent and necessary.
Cathy Bair
Thank you so very much for your live feed and especially your radar showing the storm’s position and track. With this information, I was able to ascertain that I could drive into Ithaca for an appointment at 3:00 and a second appointment at 5:00 and still make it home to Trumansburg (Ulysses, actually, in the country with a big open field on one side and a forest on the other,) in time to park the car in the garage and batten down.
Perfect timing …( high five!).
During the storm, we kept track of it by watching your radar feed and live commentary- which was helpful because we certainly couldn’t see ANYTHING out our window because the wind and rain was so heavy that we couldn’t see anything- even in our yard. If a tornado was to approach our house, we would NOT see it coming! But… we could see your radar and read your words- so informative and comforting.
One question- what are the little white circles on the radar- they kind of look like little clouds. We thought they might represent hail.
Thank you again, Drew! You are so helpful!
(Ps- We just doubled our monthly membership $)
Cathy
Meteorologist Drew Montreuil
Thank you so much, Cathy. You are so generous!
Do you mean the light blue circles with the three white circles with lines inside? Yes, that is a severe hail report. If you mean something else, let me know! 🙂
Suzanne Hinderliter
Thanks for your reporting – no hype, just necessary information that is well written. I am already a monthly donor, but I’m willing to add a few dollars per month. How do I increase my support?
Suzanne H. In Farmington.
Meteorologist Drew Montreuil
Thank you so much, Suzanne! This is probably the best link to update with: https://billing.stripe.com/p/login/00gg0qcin2RxfOoeUU
Sharon
Thank you so much for the moment by moment updates, and the maps that you showed and updated during the time of the storms coming and going.
It was beneficial in so many ways…it helped my decision making to keep or cancel a children’s ministry (for the sake of protection) last evening. It helped me see where the storms were (I have family in Lansing…I live in Groton) to know if my family was safe. And helped me know how close the storm was where I live. FLX is my go to and I believe that your skills are far better and more exact than the other weather predictions/coverage out of Syracuse.
Thank you for all that you do, it is so gratefully appreciated!!
Meteorologist Drew Montreuil
Thanks for letting me know, Sharon! I’m so glad to be able to help out like this, thanks to the support I get from you and the other monthly donors. I really appreciate your help!
Dagmar Nearpass
Road in front of my house still closed. There is a tree down across it in front of my house. 5 tree trucks have stopped, looked and left. Apparently no one wants to take responsibility.
Meteorologist Drew Montreuil
So sorry to hear about that, Dagmar 🙁
Marie McRae
Although I felt that our home was not inside the area where the tornado alert had been posted, I was keeping a close watch on radar (via ventusky). However, as I watched I came to the realization that I have no idea at all what a tornado might look like on radar. Neither do I have any idea of whether or not a tornado would give me any indication before it hits me. My home is in a one acre opening surrounded by woods with 75-100 ft trees — so I sure cannot “see” a tornado coming. Can you tell us where we might get more information about how to know high winds (tornado or microburst) are imminent?
Meteorologist Drew Montreuil
Radar interpretation is a skill that takes a lot of study and experience. That said, the NWS has a very compressive weather school with multiple lessons on radar. I’d particularly recommend the lessons on reflectivity and velocity to up your knowledge of how radar works and what to look for.
https://www.noaa.gov/jetstream/reflectivity
Marie McRae
Thanks!
James-Henry Holland
Thank you for this after-the-fact summary. I was wondering this morning how much damage there was, hail size, etc, and you just answered those question for me. Thanks!
*Sue P
Thank you for your work. I always feel safer when I read your blog during severe weather. I plan to support you.
Beth Durbin
Your service is greatly appreciated! I’ll send a donation soon!
Meteorologist Drew Montreuil
Thank you, Beth!