Tornado in New York, September 28, 2003

Name: Tornado in New York, September 28, 2003
Start: 2003-09-28T01:00
End: 2003-09-28T01:02
Location: New York

September 28, 2003 · NWS ALY · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 tornado, as filed by the National Weather Service.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $10,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

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.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Albany, NY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Sep 27, 9:10 PM EST, 3 hours 50 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Sep 27, 9:10 PM EST, 3 hours 50 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBANY NY
1010 PM EDT SAT SEP 27 2003

.DISC...CELLS AHEAD OF MCS ARE LIFTING N AND MERGING WITH MCS AS IT
MOVES E. RAINFALL AMOUNTS ACRS PTNS OF THIS AREA ALRDY IN 1 TO 3
INCH RANGE WITH ANOTHER 1 TO 3 PSBL. THIS WLD PUT AT LEAST A FEW
LCTNS ABV FFG...SO WL ISSUE A FLOOD WATCH THROUGH SUN FM HUDSON RVR
W. THIS MATCHES WELL WITH EXCESSIVE RAINFALL AREA FM HPC.

----------------------------PREVIOUS AFD-----------------------------
.DISC...
INTENSE 500 LOW OVR GRT LAKES WITH DEEP TROF EXENDG FRM NRN PLAINS
TO LWR MISS VALLEY BACK THRU FCST AREA TO CANADIAN MARITIMES. DEEP
SFC LO NEAR ONTARIO/QUEBEC BORDER WITH SRLY 850 FLOW OF 40 TO 50KT
AHEAD OF THE COLD FNT.  THIS AM A LINE OF TSTMS FORMED ALONG THE
MARITIME CONVERGENCE ZN AND ADVANCED NORTH UP THE HUDSN VALLEY
WITH PCPN RATES OF OVER 1 INCH PER HR.

.SHORT TERM...
THE MODELS DIDNT PICK UP PRECIP JUST EAST OF THE HUDSON RVR IN
DUTCHESS CO...AND IT LOOKS LIKE THERE IS A GREATER LIKELIHOOD OF
SHWR/TSTM ACTIVITY OVER THE REGION THIS EVENG THAN PREVIOUSLY
THOUGHT. THE SE FLOW HAS RAISED THE DEWPOINTS 7 DEGREES IN THE
MID HUDSON AND CAPITAL REGION TODAY. TSTM ACTIVITY IN NRN NJ
WAS JUST STARTING TO MOVE INTO THE SRN CATSKILLS AND HUDSON
VALLEY THIS AFTERNOON...WITH A 3PM TEMP OF 80 DEGREES AT
MONTGOMERY. WITH THE MOIST AIR CONTINUING TO FEED INTO THE
REGION HAVE GONE TO LIKELY POPS ACROSS THE REGION WITH THE
POSSIBILITY OF LOCALLY HVY RAIN THIS EVENING. FOR OVERNIGHT
HAVE KEPT THE CATEGORICAL POPS AND CHC OF THUNDER. POP STAYS
CATEGORICAL SUNDAY AM...THEN HAVE LIKELY FROM ADIRONDACKS TO
SRN VERMONT AND A 50 PCT CHANCE FARTHER SOUTH.

.MID TERM...
GFS HAS DRY TONGUE AT MID/UPPER LEVELS WORKING ITS WAY INTO REGION
SUNDAY PM/EVE WITH 700 WNDS FRM SW ALTHO LO LVL WNDS REMAIN MORE
WESTERLY. 850 RH VALUES DROP FOLLOWING PASSAGE OF FNT SUGGESTING
WE MAY SEE A FEW HOURS OF SUNSHINE SUNDAY AFTERNOON...BUT CLOUDS
AND PRECIP ASSOCIATED WITH THE UPPER LOW MOVE BACK IN SUNDAY EVENING
AND PRETTY MUCH HANG IN OVER THE REGION THRU WED NITE. COLD AIR FROM
HUDSON BAY AREA PLUNGES DEEP INTO THE MIDWEST BEHIND THE FRONT ON
THE BACK SIDE OF THE UPPR TROF AND SWEEPS INTO THE REGION FROM
THE GREAT LAKES AND IT WILL GET PROGRESSIVELY COLDER AS THE WEEK
GOES ON.

.EXTENDED...
THE UPPER TROF TAKES ITS SWEET TIME EXITING OUR OF OUR AREA...WITH
ITS DAMP AND CHILLY NORTHWEST FLOW HANGING AROUND THRU THURSDAY
NITE.  THE TROF FINALLY LIFTS NORTH FRIDAY MAKING WAY FOR A MORE
ZONAL FLOW BUT LOOKS LIKE SIGNIFICANT WARMING WON/T OCCUR TIL
PROBABLY SATURDAY...WHEN WITH A DRIER TRAJECTORY LOOKS LIKE THE
DREARY CLOUDS WILL FINALLY GO AWAY...AT LEAST FOR A DAY.

.HYDROLOGICAL DISCUSSION...1 TO 3 INCHES SO FAR ACRS WRN PTN OF AREA
AND ANOTHER 1 TO 3 INCHES WITH LOCALIZED HIGHER AMTS PSBL. FFG GDNC
GNRLY 2 TO 4 IN 12 HRS. HUDSON RVR W WL BE MAIN AREA OF CONCERN
WHERE CONVERGENCE ZONE AND MERGER OF CELLS OCCURRING.

.ALY...FLOOD WATCH ALL ZONES FM HUDSON RVR W THROUGH SUNDAY.

Hazardous weather outlook, Sep 27, 9:30 PM EST, 3 hours 30 minutes before

CTZ001-013-MAZ001-025-NYZ032-033-038>043-047>054-058>061-063>066-082>
084-VTZ013>015-280915-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...UPDATED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBANY NY
1030 PM EDT SAT SEP 27 2003

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR EASTERN NEW YORK AND ADJACENT
WESTERN NEW ENGLAND.

.DAY ONE...TONIGHT INTO SUNDAY...A FLOOD WATCH IS IN EFFECT FROM
ALBANY WEST THROUGH 600 PM SUNDAY. THE POTENTIAL IS THERE FOR 2 TO 4
INCHES OF RAIN IN THE WATCH AREA WITH LOCALLY MORE POSSIBLE.

.DAYS TWO THOUGH SEVEN...
NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS ACTIVATED FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES...

IN NEW
YORK...HAMILTON...SCHOHARIE...MONTGOMERY...ALBANY...GREENE...ULSTER
...SCHENECTADY...HERKIMER...SARATOGA...WARREN AND FULTON.

HWJIV

In the hours before

Local storm report, Sep 28, 12:32 AM EST, 28 minutes before

NEW YORK STATEWIDE POLICE INFORMATION NETWORK
TROOP F
0133AM     SUN SEP 28 2003
#1 0000001 000
FKIN WLSR
03588    FILE 28   SP KINGSTON NY1550200                     SEP 28-03
TO       ALL ULSTER COUNTY AND SULLIVAN COUNTY AGENCIES

DUE TO THE HEAVY RAIN EFFECTING ULSTER AND SULLIVAN COUNTIES STATE ROUTE 55 IN
THE AREA OF PORTER ROAD HAS BEEN WASHED OUT AND WILL BE CLOSED TO TRAFFIC UNTIL
STATE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION CAN REPAIR THE ROAD.

AUTH AND SENT TPR JOHN J FISHER       01-30AM
OPER - FISHER,JOHN J                  0133

The radar

The Brookhaven radar (KOKX), 115 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 05:59 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Dutchess

When: September 28, 1:00 AM EST to 1:02 AM EST
Where: Dutchess County, Fishkill
Rating: F1
Path length: 1.2 mi
Path width: 75 yd
Property damage: $10,000
Reported by: NWS STORM SURVEY
Coordinates: 41.533, -73.917

A cold front spawned a line of heavy showers across eastern New York during the early morning hours of September 28. A cell broke loose from the line and became a super cell that spawned a tornado of F0-f! intensity across Fishkill, Dutchess County. The length was a little over a mile and the width varied greatly between 25 and 100 yards. Most of the damage was to trees, but some wires were blown down and a transformer blew up. Flying debris shattered a window in a home. No injuries were reported with this tornado.

What these are

Tornado: A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in New York in 2003 Every state in 2003 This day in weather history The tornado archive for New York, 2003 Warnings in New York, September 2003

Sources

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: 5337728.