Cold air moving across the warm waters of Lake Erie caused waterspouts to form.
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
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.
The episode as NWS CLE wrote it up.
Cold air moving across the warm waters of Lake Erie caused waterspouts to form.
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 Cleveland, OH wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 17, 6:15 AM EST, 40 minutes earlier.
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</html>The Cleveland radar (KCLE), 31 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 11:56 UTC.
1 waterspout. Local standard time, as filed.
Several waterspouts were observed on Lake Erie offshore from Lorain. No damage was reported.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Lake Erie in 2012Every state in 2012This day in weather history
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: 410653.