Special Marine Warning Issued for Lake Erie and Buffalo Areas
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on April 15, 2026, 4 months ago. Warnings of this kind stay in effect for hours to a few days, so this page is a historical record of what was issued, not a current warning. For conditions where you are right now, check weather.gov (US), weather.gc.ca (Canada), the Met Office (UK), or the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia).
Areazine synthesizes this NWS weather alert directly from NOAA's official public data feed. See our methodology for full source attribution and refresh cadence.
A Special Marine Warning is in effect for Upper Niagara River, Buffalo Harbor, and parts of Lake Erie until 6:15 AM EDT, featuring strong thunderstorms with wind gusts up to 40 knots.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Special Marine Warning
- Affected area
- Lake Erie and Western New York
- Issued
- April 15, 2026
- Issuing authority
- NWS Buffalo NY
Marine notices apply to named waters or shoreline zones. They may not describe conditions on land, even when the nearest place name is the same.
Record status: historical. It was issued 4 months ago; use the issuing agency's live warning service for current conditions in Lake Erie and Western New York.
Special Marine Warning Alert
Alert Details
This Special Marine Warning has been issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) Buffalo NY. It is effective from 4:47 AM EDT until 6:15 AM EDT.
Affected Areas
The warning affects the Upper Niagara River and Buffalo Harbor; Ripley to Dunkirk NY; Dunkirk to Buffalo NY; and Ripley to Buffalo NY extending from 5 nautical miles off the shoreline to the US-Canadian border. Specific locations include Small Boat Harbor, Van Buren Point, Lake Erie Beach, Grand Island, Barcelona, Woodlawn Beach, Erie Basin Marina, Sturgeon Point, Ripley, Wanakah, Dunkirk, Athol Springs, Bayview, and Sunset Bay.
What You Should Do
Move to safe harbor until hazardous weather passes. If caught on the open water, stay below deck if possible and keep away from ungrounded metal objects due to frequent lightning.
Expected Conditions
Strong thunderstorms with wind gusts to 40 knots are expected. The storms are moving northeast at 55 knots.
Timeline
The alert is effective from 4:47 AM EDT on April 15, 2026, and ends at 6:15 AM EDT on the same day.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
Related Weather Alerts
All Weather Alerts →Nationwide notices with similar length or severity timing 8
Two Areazine-derived peer sets for this NWS weather alert: nearest notices by body length and by same severity near the same agency date. Peers come from other categories so they are not the same-feed Related list above.
Similar body length
Nearest notices by article body length (1,094 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to April 15, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this NWS weather alert.