On August 24 and 25, 2007, an unseasonably warm and humid air mass advanced into Central New York, setting the stage for two days of frequent, occasionally severe, thunderstorms across the region. Friday the 24th saw a handful of strong storms, with one severe cell in Oneida County. The 25th saw several clusters of severe storms, including another one in Oneida County that created a ton of damage in the Vienna/Sylvan Beach/Rome areas.The following are viewer photos and a recap of these storms.

Friday, August 24th

Dianne in Remsen submitted the photos below on August 24th to our Weather Photo Gallery (If you see this, Dianne, feel free to send us an email so we can personally thank you!).

What you see in the photos is something you do not frequently see in Central New York. It's called a mesocyclone, which is another term for a rotating thunderstorm. In fact, this thunderstorm rotated enough to prompt a funnel cloud report in Holland Patent. Indeed we noticed this on radar as well. This is a sight more commonly seen in the Midwest as opposed to the Northeast. Below the images is a radar snapshot from around the time we assume the photo was taken, 7:10-7:15 PM. Other viewers also submitted great photos, and you'll find those below.

We want to thank Dianne again for these incredible photos, and if you want to share weather photos with us, either submit them to the gallery from the link above, or send us an email to weather@wktv.com.

Mesocyclone, as seen from Hinckley (click to enlarge):

Radar view from 7:10 PM:

Also, Mike in Forestport sent us an impressive photo of the mesocyclone this evening. Thank you to him as well!

Thanks also to Tom who sent this photo in via cell phone:

...And from Donna at Snowbird Lake in Forestport:

Andrew in Whitesboro captured this awesome shot from Route 233 in Westmoreland:

 A capture from a cell phone camera at the Wal-Mart in Rome:

Donald Hildebrand caught a few great shots from Oriskany as well:

John Reid in Westmoreland caught a couple from his perspective as well:

Saturday, August 25

 On Saturday, two supercell thunderstorms developed durning the afternoon and evening causing widespread damage. The first storm developed near Syracuse and moved across Oneida Lake and through the central part of Oneida and Herkimer Counties. Widespread wind damage was reported along the path of this storm. The corridor from Sylvan Beach through the City of Rome was especially hard hit, with numerous reports of tree and property damage. The official observing station for Central New York at Griffiss registered a 65 mph wind gust before the anemometer broke. Also, our doppler radar at one point indicated some very strong rotation with this cell. The damage was likely the cause of a downburst, or straight line winds.

The second supercell storm moved just to the south of the Mohawk Valley. Doppler radar indicated some large hail and we were able to confirm that, as hail over 3/4" fell in eastern Chenango County along with some wind damage. Utica and most of the Western Mohawk Valley were spared this time around from the major storms.

CLICK HERE to view a series of incredible damage photographs in Rome from Photojournalist, Keith Hunt.

Here is a snapshot of radar from around 3 PM, when the storms were centered right over Rome:

Here's a Doppler Radar velocity capture from the same time. Notice, right over Rome, where the light blue color is located right next to the yellows? That's a strong indication of rotation within the storm. It was even stronger in earlier images.

Here's a radar capture of the second round of storms pounding Otsego County around 7 PM.

Thank you again to all who contributed photos to making our coverage so much better! If you still have photos and would like to share, send us an email to weather@wktv.com.

And more images can be found in the Weather Photo Gallery.