For the second time in three days, a significant severe weather event including tornadoes affected central New York. The primary focusing mechanisms were a strong mid level shortwave trough and surface cold front that approached from the west late in the day and during the evening.
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS BGM wrote it up.
For the second time in three days, a significant severe weather event including tornadoes affected central New York. The primary focusing mechanisms were a strong mid level shortwave trough and surface cold front that approached from the west late in the day and during the evening. As these features encountered an unstable and increasingly moist environment, thunderstorms developed and quickly became severe. Strongly veering winds that increased with height contributed substantially to the development of tornadic supercells. Two tornadoes touched down in central New York in the early evening on the 2nd. Both appeared to be associated with the same cell. The first tornado occurred in extreme eastern Cortland county in the town of Cincinnatus. After the twister's brief initial touchdown, it lifted back into the cloud base for several minutes before descending once again in western Chenango county in the town of Pitcher. Both tornadoes were rated as F1 intensity with fairly narrow damage paths of a quarter mile or less in length and 100 yards or less in width. Very fortunately, structural damage was kept to a minimum as only two houses sustained appreciable damage. Also, there were no injuries directly tied to the tornadoes as both homes were unoccupied and sparsely populated areas were affected. However, damage estimates from Foresty Department personnel still approached a half million dollars as hundreds of trees were cut down. Elsewhere across central New York, damage was fairly widespread from a combination of intense squall line and bow echo complexes as well as isolated supercells. One such supercell cut a lengthy path of wind damage over the Finger Lakes region early in the evening from western Yates county all the way through southern Cayuga county. Hail as large as golf balls was also observed with these storms. The same thunderstorm complex that became tornadic over portions of Cortland and Chenango counties was also responsible for quite a bit of damage from straight line winds. Swaths of downed trees and power lines from downburst type winds were interspersed with tornadic damage from Homer in western Cortland county to Norwich in northern Chenango county. Across the southern tier counties including the western Catskills, severe thunderstorms were more widely separated as a general rule. Yet, there were two areas of concentrated activity. One was from Steuben county eastward through the Elmira/Corning area into Tioga county. Golf ball sized hail and wind gusts estimated at near 80 mph accompanied these storms. A bow echo complex affected an area from Oneonta in southern Otsego county into northern Delaware county with widespread wind damage just after nightfall. By late in the evening, remaining severe thunderstorms had pushed either into the eastern Catskills or northern Pennsylvania as a cold front swept through much of central New York.
The Binghamton radar (KBGM), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 22:06 UTC.
7 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 2 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
A severe thunderstorm moved across the county early in the evening and produced scattered wind damage. Trees were uprooted and a few utility poles were toppled in and near Penn Yan.
The severe thunderstorm that produced damage a bit earlier in the evening across Yates county continued eastward into Seneca county and remained severe. Trees were uprooted and several homes sustained roof damage in Sheldrake.
The same severe thunderstorm that produced damage earlier in both Yates and Seneca counties plowed eastward across southern Cayuga county. Widespread wind damage in the form of downed trees and power lines occurred in Kings Ferry, Auburn, Moravia, and Niles. The cell also produced nickel sized hail in Moravia and nearly golf ball sized hail in Kings Ferry.
A thunderstorm intensified to severe levels across western sections of the county. Just after 7 pm EDT, hail to one inch in diameter and downed trees were reported in and just north of Homer. Shortly thereafter, the storm toppled additional trees and power lines in Cortland.
A cluster of severe thunderstorms developed over the northwestern corner of the county. They produced sporadic wind damage early in the evening as they moved rapidly southeastward through the county. Trees and wires were downed in the Trumansburg area, then additional trees and wires were blown down in and just north of Ithaca.
A thunderstorm that produced wind damage and large hail across western sections of the county earlier in the evening reintensified to severe limits once again further east. Trees and power lines were downed in the town of Taylor and dime sized hail was reported as well.
A severe thunderstorm that had produced wind damage and hail just a short time prior in the town of Taylor became tornadic over Cincinnatus. Post-storm damage surveys indicate that the tornado touchdown was brief with snapped off trees and some house damage incurred. One home had its roof almost completely torn off with the front porch also heavily damaged from falling trees. The swath of damage was only just over 100 yards long with evidence of tornadic winds becoming discontinuous downstream.
The severe cell that had become tornadic just across the county line in eastern Cortland county earlier in the evening remained a tornadic supercell after entering Chenango county. Aerial damage surveys indicate that the tornado was near ground level for a few minutes in the town of Pitcher. A swath of forest was heavily damaged for about a quarter of a mile. Most trees were snapped or sheared off near canopy level. A few trees were completely uprooted or twisted off the ground. Fortunately, no homes were in this vicinity. Foresty Department personnel estimate that hundreds of trees were damaged with fiscal estimates near a quarter of a million dollars.
The same thunderstorm cell that dropped a tornado across western portions of the county continued to produce damage as it continued eastward. Although no tornadic damage was indicated by this time, straight line winds toppled trees and power lines from Plymouth eastward across portions of Norwich.
A thunderstorm briefly strengthened to severe limits just to the rear of a cell that had produced extensive damage across the county earlier in the evening. A few trees and power lines came down in the town of Norwich around 830 pm EDT.
A thunderstorm became severe across southern sections of the county. Many trees and wires were downed in Oneonta around 9 pm EDT. The storm then continued eastward into Milford and produced additional wind damage in the form of toppled trees and utility poles. One such tree fell across a house and damaged its front porch.
Part of the same thunderstorm cluster that caused wind damage just across the county line in southern Otsego county also produced severe weather in northern Delaware county. Trees and power lines were downed in Davenport and a skywarn spotter also observed hailstones to an inch and a quarter in diameter just after 9 pm EDT.
A thunderstorm briefly reached severe limits across southern sections of the county. Trees and power lines were blown down in the town of Jasper shortly after 9 pm EDT.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in New York in 1998Every state in 1998This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for New York, 1998Warnings in New York, June 1998
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5656731, 5656807, 5656808, 5656809, 5656810, 5656813, 5656894, 5656811, 5656812, 5656898, 5656896, 5656897, 5656895.