Alert archive / New York / Tornado Warnings in 1998

Tornado Warning 2, NWS New York, NY

May 31, 1998Orange County, New York

NWS New York, NY issued this tornado warning at May 31, 1998, 8:17 PM EDT for Orange County, New York. It was in force for 38 min. 1 report came from inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named, with what was reported inside it.

The facts

Issued: May 31, 1998, 8:17 PM EDT (00:17 UTC)
Expired: May 31, 1998, 8:55 PM EDT
In force: 38 min
Issued by: NWS New York, NY
Area: Whole counties

County Orange County, NY

The radar

The Albany radar (KENX), 133 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:18 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

What was reported inside it

Time	Report	Where	Remark
May 31, 8:40 PM EDT	Thunderstorm Wind 50	Goshen, NY

NCEI Storm Data entries that began inside the alert's area while it was in force. Before 2003 the local storm report archive is thin, so this is the record of what happened rather than what was phoned in.

The watch it was issued in

The SPC watch in force over the same counties when this warning went out.

Issued	Product	Office	Lasted
May 31, 5:00 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	5 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Brookhaven, NY (KOKX), launched 00:00Z, 0.3 hours before the alert went out and 135 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 151 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -348 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1224 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 233 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 319 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: -0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.

688 
WFUS1 KNYC 010018 RRA
TORNYC
NYC071-010055-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
817 PM EDT SUN MAY 31 1998

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN NEW YORK HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
  ORANGE COUNTY IN SOUTHEASTERN NEW YORK

* UNTIL 855 PM EDT

* SOME LOCATIONS IN THE PATH OF THIS TORNADO ARE...   MIDDLETOWN...
    DENTON...   FLORIDA...   GOSHEN...   CHESTER...   MONTGOMERY...
    MAYBROOK...   HARRIMAN...   COLDENHAM AND   STEWART AIR FORCE
  BASE.

* AT 813 PM EDT... NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED
  A POSSIBLE TORNADO 6 MILES SOUTHWEST OF MIDDLETOWN OR 4 MILES
  WEST OF DENTON MOVING EAST AT 40 MPH. THERE HAS BEEN A SPOTTER
  REPORT OF A TORNADO ON THE GROUND IN MONTAGUE NJ IN SUSSEX COUNTY
  ASSOCIATED WITH THIS SAME SEVERE THUNDERSTORM.

  THIS STORM HAS A HISTORY OF PRODUCING DAMAGING HAIL IN THE 3/4
  TO 1 1/2 INCH RANGE.

GO TO THE BASEMENT OR A SMALL INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR

MCKILLOP/KLEIN

The office that day

Everything else NWS New York, NY issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 31, 8:33 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OKX	Putnam	57 min
May 31, 8:47 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	OKX	Orange	58 min
May 31, 9:05 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	OKX	Westchester	65 min
May 31, 9:56 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	OKX	Orange, Putnam	59 min
May 31, 9:56 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	OKX	Rockland	59 min
May 31, 10:10 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OKX	Westchester	60 min
May 31, 10:37 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	OKX	Orange	118 min
May 31, 10:47 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OKX	Rockland	48 min
May 31, 10:47 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OKX	Westchester	48 min
Jun 1, 2:03 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OKX	Kings, Queens	47 min
Jun 1, 2:33 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OKX	Nassau, Suffolk	47 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in New York, 1998 Every tornado warning in 1998 Tornadoes in 1998

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.