Special Marine Warning Issued for Lake Erie Near Buffalo
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on May 24, 2026, 3 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.
NWS Buffalo has issued a Special Marine Warning for Lake Erie waters including the Upper Niagara River and Buffalo Harbor until 3:30 PM EDT.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Special Marine Warning
- Affected area
- Lake Erie near Buffalo NY
- Issued
- May 24, 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 3 months ago; use the issuing agency's live warning service for current conditions in Lake Erie near Buffalo NY.
Alert Details
A Special Marine Warning has been issued by the National Weather Service in Buffalo NY. The alert is effective from 2:29 PM EDT on May 16, 2026, until 3:30 PM EDT on May 16, 2026.
Affected Areas
The warning covers Lake Erie from Ripley to the Buffalo Harbor, the Upper Niagara River and Buffalo Harbor, and areas extending from 5NM off shoreline to the US-Canadian border. Impacted locations include Small Boat Harbor, Van Buren Point, Lake Erie Beach, 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.
Expected Conditions
At 2:28 PM EDT, a strong thunderstorm was located 7 nm northeast of Ripley, or 13 nm southwest of Dunkirk, moving northeast at 55 knots. Hazard includes wind gusts 34 knots or greater. Small craft could be damaged in briefly higher winds and suddenly higher waves.
Timeline
The alert is in effect from 2:29 PM EDT until 3:30 PM EDT on May 16, 2026.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
Related Weather Alerts
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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 (1,053 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to May 24, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this NWS weather alert.