Weather During Deadly Buffalo Plane Crash?
UPDATE: Google maps showing the location below. Time has an interesting article about the history of the type of plane that crashed (Q400 series). Here's a map of wind gusts (anything less than 10 is probably bad data) as of 11 PM last night:
DATA/MAP FROM
And here is the radar from just after the crash, showing moderate snow at the crash site:
As noted below, icing on the plane could have contributed to the crash - we won't know until the NTSB investigation is complete.
The Associated Press says that 49 people were killed by last night's plane crash near Buffalo, New York. The AP says "After the crash, at least two pilots were heard on air traffic control messages saying they had been picking up ice on their wings." Officially though, the investigation continues.
As noted on our Weather Headlines (PREMIUM | PRO) and Breaking Weather News Page (PREMIUM | PRO):
"The plane went down in the small town of Clarence Center, located to the northeast of Buffalo. Winds in Buffalo through the afternoon and evening had been occasionally gusting between 25 and 30 mph. At 10 p.m. EST, around the time of the crash, winds had gusted to 25 mph.Light snow and rain was also falling as the plane went down. The snow had lowered visibility to 3 miles in Buffalo."
The crash happened at 6038 Long Street [Google Map] around 10:20 PM. I am going to see if I can pull some additional surface weather data, and I know our meteorologists are working on looking at the upper-air situation. Here are some Google maps of the crash location:
