OLCOTT, N.Y. (WKBW) — The National Weather Service Buffalo has confirmed an EF-1 tornado touched down in Olcott on Wednesday.
Heavy rain and strong winds blew off the lake, as clouds seemingly funneled before hitting Olcott Beach.
“We are surveying this to see if a tornado took place,” said warning coordination meteorologist Shane Kearns. “Several videos are circulating that show at least a funnel or some type of circulation, so we are trying to determine if that funnel reached the ground at some point or if this was more a result of the strong straight-line winds from the thunderstorm.”
All of that led to a noticeable path of destruction in Krull Park, as dozens of trees were taken out by the wind.
WATCH: National Weather Service investigating possible tornado in Olcott
That is far from the only damage. A pontoon boat at the Hedley Boatyard had its top mangled; dozens more trees across the area were knocked over and need to be cut down, but possibly worst off is Bill Clark, who found his house with a tree sitting on it.
“We had just gone out for a few minutes to run an errand, and we saw the storm, clouds and everything coming, so we said, ‘yeah, we’ve got to get back.’ Before we got back, a neighbor called and said, ‘There’s a tree on your house,’” Clark said.
Clark and his family are safe, but he has lived here all his life and does not remember a storm quite like this.
“Every few years, we get a storm with 60mph winds, but I don’t ever remember 70 mph winds,” Clark said.
That is an observation the National Weather Service is considering.
Q: “What is it that you are looking for on the ground that would determine that?”
Kearns: “For a tornado, we are looking for areas of concentrated damage along a path. Generally, you want the trees or debris to be pointed inwards towards a point versus spread out, away from each other.”
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