'November Witch' Storm Brings High Winds to Great Lakes, Plains, Midwest (RECAP)

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was last updated on the evening of Nov. 13, 2015.

On par with past storms, known locally as the "witches of November" and virtually on the exact date of the storm that sunk the iron ore freighter Edmund Fitzgerald 40 years ago, a powerful low-pressure system has spread a swath of high winds through the Plains, Upper Midwest, Great Lakes, Ohio Valley and Northeast.

The low's central pressure bottomed out at 984 millibars (29.06 inches of mercury) near Alpena, Michigan, early Thursday afternoon, the sign of a strong mid-latitude cyclone.

Due to the pressure difference between the cyclone's low pressure and a zone of high pressure over the northern Rockies, strong damaging winds developed.

(RECAPS: Severe Thunderstorms | Blizzard Conditions)

High Wind Reports

There have been reports of non-thunderstorm wind damage from Oklahoma to Upstate New York, including trees and powerlines downed, power outages, and even some structural damage in a few spots.

Wednesday's high winds were not simply associated with the derecho in the Upper Mississippi Valley, but also whipped through areas behind the line of severe thunderstorms and in areas that didn't receive any rainfall.

• A roof was blown off a house in Pomona, Kansas.
• A tractor-trailer was blown over in Ottawa, Kansas.
• Winds gusted over 60 mph in the Kansas City area, causing more than 12,000 customers to lose power as of 3 p.m.
• Trees fell onto houses in Topeka and Columbus, Kansas.
• Trees and power lines were downed in many communities across eastern Kansas and far western Missouri.
• Wildfires in Washington County, Oklahoma, just north of Tulsa, consumed a barn and other nearby structures.

Thursday, damaging winds spread across the Ohio Valley, Great Lakes and Upstate New York:

• High winds closed the Chicago Skyway over the Calumet River.
• A utility pole was snapped and fell onto a vehicle near Marienville, Pennsylvania.
• A downed tree sheared off a gas line and struck a car in Evans Center, New York.
• Gusts over 60 mph were clocked over Lake Michigan 3 miles east of Chicago (71 mph), Dunkirk, New York (66 mph), Summit, South Dakota (64 mph), and Warren, Indiana (62 mph).

Locally damaging winds persisted into Friday across parts of the Midwest, Great Lakes and Northeast:

• Strong winds caused trees and power lines to fall onto a vehicle in Adams, New York.
• Utility poles were knocked down by damaging winds in Massillion, Ohio.
• A road was closed in Fort Johnson, New York due to downed trees.
• Gusty winds over 50 mph were reported once again across the Midwest and Great Lakes, including Detroit (54 mph), Batavia, Illinois (53 mph) and Muskegon, Michigan (51 mph).

Significant lakeshore flooding was reported along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan in southwest Lower Michigan, with waves also driven into river channels, thanks to the duration and intensity of onshore winds.

If that wasn't enough, lake-enhanced snow blanketed parts of the Lake Superior snowbelt. A spotter just south of Cornucopia, Wisconsin, measured 10 inches of snow as of Friday morning. Ironwood, Michigan, picked up 6 inches of snow in just 8-10 hours overnight Thursday night.

Gusty winds on Friday may be played a role in a brush fire that impacted Staten Island. More than 170 firefighters battled the blaze, as windy conditions made its containment difficult.

Past "Witches of November"

Early November – and late October, for that matter – has a long, notorious history of intense Midwest windstorms that have proven deadly for Great Lakes shipping.

Weather Underground historian Christopher Burt discussed this in a 2010 blog written after another such storm – the "Octobomb"– raked through the Midwest Oct. 25-27, 2010, and set all-time low pressure records in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Known locally as the "Witches of November" and mentioned in singer Gordon Lightfoot's iconic "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" about the 1975 storm responsible for sinking the huge iron-ore ship in Lake Superior, these Great Lakes storms don't always produce much snow, but their fierce winds are a signature feature.

This storm's minimum low pressure near the Great Lakes may be comparable to the Edmund Fitzgerald 1975 storm, but its pressure gradient, which ultimately drives wind speeds, is expected to be less, according to winter weather expert Tom Niziol of The Weather Channel.

Another such storm 17 years ago was actually stronger than the 1975 Edmund Fitzgerald storm, and produced wind gusts over 70 mph in some areas of the Great Lakes.

When there is snow accompanying these storms, the resulting blizzard can be crippling.

For example, one of Minnesota's most notorious blizzards took place on Armistice Day 1940, where winds whipped snow drifts up to 20 feet deep and a number of ships were sunk on Lake Michigan. The blizzard killed 154, according to Burt. Sixty-six sailors were killed in the Lake Michigan ship sinkings.

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