Damaging Winds to Sweep Chicago, Detroit and Buffalo

By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist

November 12,2015; 12:52AM,EST

 

 

Following an outbreak of severe thunderstorms, high winds will sweep from the Plains to the Great Lakes and will also have damaging and disruptive consequences.
The same storm system responsible for heavy snow in the Rockies and severe weather expected on Wednesday will also generate a punch of 40- to 60-mph gusts over the Central states.
According to AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Elliot Abrams, the high wind event could affect far more many people than the severe thunderstorms this week.

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"The strong winds will last for many hours and in some cases a couple of days, compared to minutes from the severe thunderstorms," Abrams said.
The strong winds first developed over the central and southern Rockies on Tuesday night. During Wednesday, strong winds ripped across portions of northern Texas and eastern Colorado to eastern Kansas and Oklahoma.
The strongest winds during the event will develop farther to the east on Wednesday night and continue on Thursday.
The wall of wind will swing across Iowa, northern Missouri, southeastern Minnesota, northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin and northwestern Indiana during Wednesday night into Thursday morning.

During Thursday, the powerful gusts will extend across Michigan, northeastern Indiana, northern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, western New York and southwestern Ontario.

Over the waters of the lower Great Lakes, the strong winds cannot only generate large waves but could also cause the lakes to rock back and forth with the potential for lakeshore flooding Wednesday night and Thursday.
Gusty winds and large waves will continue around the Great Lakes on Friday.
According to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski, the powerful gusts will hit some areas following severe thunderstorms and also many areas where severe thunderstorms will miss.
"Where severe weather leads to damage in the mid-Mississippi Valley during Wednesday, the strong winds that follow could lead to more damage and problems for cleanup crews," Pydynowski said.
The high winds, blowing from the west and northwest, can knock down trees and cause sporadic power outages. The winds will lead to airline delays and dangerous conditions for trucks and lightweight automobiles.
Major cities in the path of the high winds include St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo, New York.
Motorists should keep a firm grip on the wheel. Strong crosswinds could especially be a problem along Interstate 29, I-35, I-57, I-69, I-90 and I-94.
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The magnitude of this wind event will likely stop short of the windstorms that have sunk scores of vessels and drowned hundreds of sailors during November.
"The middle of November is notorious for Great Lakes windstorms," Abrams said.
Great Lakes windstorms have be referred to as freshwater furies in literature, songs and the meteorological community for decades. One of the most famous shipwrecks was the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank with all crew during a windstorm on Nov. 10, 1975.