Latest news with #windgusts
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Storm batters St. Cloud with 60 MPH winds, uprooting trees and damaging homes
The Brief Severe storms with 60 mph wind gusts battered St. Cloud, Florida, on Thursday night, tearing roofs and toppling trees. Several homes and power lines were damaged, but no injuries were reported. City officials are urging residents to begin hurricane preparations now ahead of what's expected to be an active season. ST. CLOUD, Fla. - Strong winds from severe thunderstorms late Thursday caused widespread damage in St. Cloud, toppling trees, tearing off rooftops and knocking out power, just days ahead of the official start to hurricane season. What we know Severe thunderstorms rolled through St. Cloud late Thursday, producing wind gusts up to 60 mph and large hail, according to the National Weather Service. The powerful winds peeled the aluminum roof off a home on Jersey Avenue and ripped away a screened-in patio. In other parts of the city, trees were toppled onto homes, power lines, and buildings—one of which was later declared unsafe. Despite the destruction, no injuries have been reported. What we don't know Officials have not released a full assessment of the damage or the number of homes affected. It remains unclear whether any residents have been displaced or if utility services have been fully restored across the impacted neighborhoods. Long-term recovery plans or insurance estimates have yet to be announced. The backstory The storm struck just days before the official start of hurricane season, amplifying concerns about readiness. The National Weather Service had issued warnings ahead of the storm, but its force still caught some residents off guard. One family on Fifth Street narrowly avoided tragedy when a tree crashed down near their home moments after they fled with their grandchild. Big picture view The storm has heightened awareness in St. Cloud about the need for early hurricane preparation. City officials are encouraging residents to trim trees and clear debris before more storms arrive. With forecasts predicting an active hurricane season, the damage is being viewed by some as an urgent reminder of the threats ahead. What they're saying In one hard-hit neighborhood along Jersey Avenue, the aluminum roof of a home was peeled back by the storm's force. Across the street from Lakefront Park, public works crews were seen removing a massive tree that had been threatening nearby homes and cars. "There's a lot of people that picnic across the street, and I was afraid that it may even hit a car, you know, as it's going by," the homeowner said. "So I'm glad they went ahead and took it down." Another tree fell near a home on Fifth Street and Missouri Avenue, knocking down power lines and sending a scare through one family. "It came up so fast," a resident said. "Me and my wife were in the bedroom right there with the grandbaby. I seen the tree rocking back and forth. I yelled at her to get the baby out of the room, and as soon as I said that, that tree—it went over." City officials say the recent storms serve as a wake-up call just ahead of hurricane season, which begins Sunday. "Our public works crew — they've really been getting a dress rehearsal for hurricane season," one city official said. "They do predict that we're going to have a very active season, so I would encourage our residents to take those steps now." What you can do As cleanup continues, residents are being asked to place storm debris in their regular trash bins to make it easier for city crews to collect. STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 35 ORLANDO: Download the FOX Local app for breaking news alerts, the latest news headlines Download the FOX 35 Storm Team Weather app for weather alerts & radar Sign up for FOX 35's daily newsletter for the latest morning headlines FOX Local:Stream FOX 35 newscasts, FOX 35 News+, Central Florida Eats on your smart TV The Source This story was written based on information shared by the City of St. Cloud and residents who live along Jersey Avenue.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Edmonton area hit by 2nd-strongest winds on record in Thursday storm
A powerful thunderstorm swept through Edmonton Thursday night, prompting an emergency warning before the area was hit by the strongest wind gusts in nearly 60 years. Winds in the region reached up to 129 km/h, which marks the second-strongest gusts ever recorded in the city, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). "We're expecting wind gusts of, generally speaking, 90 km/h, maybe 100 km/h out of those [thunderstorms]," said Alysa Pederson, an warning preparedness meteorologist for the agency. ECCC said the storm developed from a strong low-pressure system and cold front, which is typical of Alberta's summer thunderstorm season. But this event was more intense than usual, prompting a rare "broadcast intrusive" alert, reserved for only the most severe conditions, Pederson said. The storm moved in fast, hitting the Edmonton International Airport around 7:15 p.m. MT Thursday, causing structural damage to a few buildings and the windows of vehicles in several lots. "It was a quick one. It came through here in about four minutes from start to finish," said Erin Isfeld, the Edmonton International Airport's manager of corporate communications. "We really came through this pretty much unscathed, when you think about damage to structures and vehicles; that kind of thing can be replaced or fixed. What we're really happy about is that no one was injured." she said. Airport officials had a few minutes' warning before the storm struck and moved quickly to protect staff and travelers. The airport closed its departure-level ramp in case of flying debris, and personnel ushered people into the terminal to ensure their safety, Isfeld said. Four flights were diverted to Calgary, and the airport experienced a short ground delay. Operations resumed within an hour. Airport staff knew the storm was coming, Isfeld said, "but I'm not too sure anybody really anticipated winds of 129 km/h." "We haven't seen winds here at Edmonton International like that for the last 60 years," she said. "So [it's] a very rare event to happen here." Pederson, of ECCC, said Edmonton last experienced stronger winds on Oct. 1, 1965, when gusts reached 146 km/h. The storm caused damage across several Edmonton neighbourhoods and surrounding areas. Trees were uprooted or snapped, and debris damaged some homes, fences, vehicles and power lines. Kolton Canning, an arbourist and owner of Trusty Tree Services, said his business' phones haven't stopped ringing. "We are struggling to keep up and we have a very specialized team and system to deal with this," he said. His crews are removing a massive fallen trees, including a 21-metre pine that crashed onto a home, he said. They're dealing with a variety of trees, but a lot of pines and spruce fell on cars, sheds, houses and fences, he said, adding that areas like Brookside, Sherwood Park and Fort Saskatchewan were hit particularly hard. In the aftermath, EPCOR reported four power outages affecting 37 customers in various parts of Edmonton, but crews restored power by the end of the night."While our electrical system is designed to handle a wide variety of conditions, outages do occur for a variety of reasons, including high winds and storms," EPCOR said in a statement. Residents are urged not to approach downed power lines or branches tangled in electrical wires. Instead, they should stay 10 metres back and report it to 911 or the utility company, EPCOR said. "We will send a crew with proper safety equipment to remove the object and repair any damage," the company said. Pederson, from ECCC, noted that climate change could cause more events like this. "We are seeing impacts of climate change across Alberta, across western North America. The further north you are, the greater that change is," she said. "Warmer air means it can hold more moisture, which leads to its ability to have bigger thunderstorms and bigger extremes for severe weather."
CBC
3 days ago
- Climate
- CBC
Edmonton area hit by 2nd-strongest winds on record in Thursday storm
A powerful thunderstorm swept through Edmonton Thursday night, prompting an emergency warning before the area was hit by the strongest wind gusts in nearly 60 years. Winds in the region reached up to 129 km/h, which marks the second-strongest gusts ever recorded in the city, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). "We're expecting wind gusts of, generally speaking, 90 km/h, maybe 100 km/h out of those [thunderstorms]," said Alysa Pederson, an warning preparedness meteorologist for the agency. ECCC said the storm developed from a strong low-pressure system and cold front, which is typical of Alberta's summer thunderstorm season. But this event was more intense than usual, prompting a rare "broadcast intrusive" alert, reserved for only the most severe conditions, Pederson said. The storm moved in fast, hitting the Edmonton International Airport around 7:15 p.m. MT Thursday, causing structural damage to a few buildings and the windows of vehicles in several lots. "It was a quick one. It came through here in about four minutes from start to finish," said Erin Isfeld, the Edmonton International Airport's manager of corporate communications. "We really came through this pretty much unscathed, when you think about damage to structures and vehicles; that kind of thing can be replaced or fixed. What we're really happy about is that no one was injured." she said. Airport officials had a few minutes' warning before the storm struck and moved quickly to protect staff and travelers. The airport closed its departure-level ramp in case of flying debris, and personnel ushered people into the terminal to ensure their safety, Isfeld said. Four flights were diverted to Calgary, and the airport experienced a short ground delay. Operations resumed within an hour. Airport staff knew the storm was coming, Isfeld said, "but I'm not too sure anybody really anticipated winds of 129 km/h." "We haven't seen winds here at Edmonton International like that for the last 60 years," she said. "So [it's] a very rare event to happen here." Pederson, of ECCC, said Edmonton last experienced stronger winds on Oct. 1, 1965, when gusts reached 146 km/h. The storm caused damage across several Edmonton neighbourhoods and surrounding areas. Trees were uprooted or snapped, and debris damaged some homes, fences, vehicles and power lines. Kolton Canning, an arbourist and owner of Trusty Tree Services, said his business' phones haven't stopped ringing. "We are struggling to keep up and we have a very specialized team and system to deal with this," he said. His crews are removing a massive fallen trees, including a 21-metre pine that crashed onto a home, he said. They're dealing with a variety of trees, but a lot of pines and spruce fell on cars, sheds, houses and fences, he said, adding that areas like Brookside, Sherwood Park and Fort Saskatchewan were hit particularly hard. In the aftermath, EPCOR reported four power outages affecting 37 customers in various parts of Edmonton, but crews restored power by the end of the night. "While our electrical system is designed to handle a wide variety of conditions, outages do occur for a variety of reasons, including high winds and storms," EPCOR said in a statement. Residents are urged not to approach downed power lines or branches tangled in electrical wires. Instead, they should stay 10 metres back and report it to 911 or the utility company, EPCOR said. "We will send a crew with proper safety equipment to remove the object and repair any damage," the company said. Pederson, from ECCC, noted that climate change could cause more events like this. "We are seeing impacts of climate change across Alberta, across western North America. The further north you are, the greater that change is," she said.
CBC
3 days ago
- Climate
- CBC
Why wind gusts prompted an extreme weather alert in some parts of Alberta
On Thursday, some Albertans in northern and central parts of the province received a thunderstorm alert with a warning of gusts up to 130 km/h. Environment Canada says the Edmonton area experienced the second strongest wind gusts since 1965. Travis McEwan looks at some of the damage caused by the storm.
CBS News
18-05-2025
- Climate
- CBS News
Pittsburgh has a dry start to the week, but multiple rain chances move in later on
Following the passage of yesterday's cold front, western Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia received some pretty high wind gusts as anticipated during the afternoon. Several sites across our viewing area gusted to 40mph or higher. Today will still be fairly breezy in the afternoon, but the gusts should only be around 25-35 mph. Skies are partly cloudy now, but we should trend toward mostly cloudy conditions through the afternoon. There is a low chance of a stray shower or two as well. WEATHER LINKS: Current Conditions | School Closings & Delays | Submit Your Weather Photos Winds will settle down tonight and into the day tomorrow and Tuesday as high pressure nudges closer to our region. This will result in fewer clouds, although not completely clear conditions. Temperatures are expected to largely be near or slightly below seasonal levels for the next few days with highs in the mid-upper 60s to near 70 and lows in the mid to upper 40s. Low temperatures on Sunday KDKA Weather Center By Tuesday evening, and especially on Wednesday, rain chances will start to increase as a very slow-moving wave of low pressure migrates from the Plains to the Great Lakes States. The amount of water vapor in the atmosphere that could be rained out will be closer to late June/July levels as opposed to May, which means there's a potential for locally heavy rain as well. High temperatures on Monday KDKA Weather Center On Wednesday, the low will likely pass just a little to the northwest of Pittsburgh, which may briefly put part of our area in the warm sector. This would lead to predominantly rain, but a few thunderstorms are also possible. Once the low passes to our east Wednesday night into Thursday, cool northwesterly flow will move in and linger through the rest of the week. Rain chances over the next week KDKA Weather Center Temperatures will be well below normal with highs on Thursday and Friday struggling to make it out of the 50s with lows in the mid-40s. While the main wave of low pressure is expected to move to the east, a remnant elongated low-pressure area called a trough will linger in our region, keeping the potential for light rain showers and plenty of clouds in place through Saturday. 7-day forecast: May 18, 2025 KDKA Weather Center Stay up to date with the KDKA Mobile App – which you can download here!
