ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Have you seen any downed trees after the steady rain and wind on Saturday? News10NBC saw some large trees down on Culver Road, with the sidewalk damaged by roots.
As First Alert Meteorologist Nate Morris explains, it takes more than strong winds to knock down trees. It also has to do with wind direction and how saturated the ground is. This has been a wet spring so far. March had almost double the amount of normal rainfall. Rochester saw 1.37 inches of rain on Saturday, measured at the airport, and some spots near the Niagara Frontier saw up to two inches of rain.
All of that led to a very saturated ground, making it easy for wind to uproot trees. If this were during the winter, when the ground was drier and trees had no leaves to catch the wind, you would need stronger gusts to topple trees…