Name: Waterspout in Lake Ontario, August 8, 2008
Start: 2008-08-08T11:30
End: 2008-08-08T11:30
Location: Lake Ontario

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS BUF wrote it up.

Cold air crossing the relatively warmer waters of Lake Ontario resulted in waterspouts.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Buffalo, NY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 8, 9:58 AM EST, 1 hour 32 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 8, 9:58 AM EST, 1 hour 32 minutes before

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Hazardous weather outlook, Aug 8, 4:16 AM EST, 7 hours 14 minutes before

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In the hours before

Local storm report, Aug 8, 8:55 AM EST, 2 hours 35 minutes before

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The radar

The Buffalo radar (KBUF), 113 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 16:29 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 waterspout. Local standard time, as filed.

Waterspout, Hamlin Beach to Sodus Bay Ny

When: August 8, 11:30 AM EST
Where: Hamlin Beach to Sodus Bay Ny forecast zone, 3.85 mi W of Ontario on the Lake
Reported by: Coast Guard
Coordinates: 43.286, -77.426

What these are

Waterspout: A tornado over water. One that moves ashore is filed as a tornado from the coastline on.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Lake Ontario in 2008 Every state in 2008 This day in weather history

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 133756.