Tornadoes · United States · New York · 1989

F1 tornado, Orange County, New York, November 16, 1989

This F1 tornado ran 9.1 miles across Orange County on November 16, 1989, touching down at 12:05 PM EST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed 9 people and injured 18, and did $5 million to $50 million of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
November 16, 1989
Touchdown
12:05 PM EST (17:05 UTC)
Path length
9.1 miles (14.6 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
9
Injuries
18
Property damage
$5 million to $50 million
County
Orange County
Touchdown point
41.320, -74.200
Lift-off point
41.520, -74.150
Record number
839

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:40 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Albany, NY (KALB), 12:00Z

5.1 hours before the tornado, 144 km from the path. November 16, 1989.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Albany, NY at 12:00Z on 1989-11-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 47 joules per kilogram, CIN -16, lifted condensation level 697 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Albany, NY at 12:00Z on 1989-11-16The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 316 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
47 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-16 J/kg
Surface CAPE
32 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
697 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
316 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
432 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Albany, NY (KALB), 00:00Z

6.9 hours after it, 144 km from the path. November 17, 1989.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Albany, NY at 00:00Z on 1989-11-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -18468, lifted condensation level 1289 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Albany, NY at 00:00Z on 1989-11-17The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -155 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 123 knots.1939587897117136156Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-18468 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1289 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
123 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-155 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
49 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1989 tornado in New YorkEvery tornado in New York since 1950Warnings in force in New York nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of November 16, 1989

21 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 164:00 AM ESTF2Jefferson, WV9.0503$50,000 to $500,000
November 168:15 AM ESTF0Amelia, VA0.213$50,000 to $500,000
November 169:20 AM ESTF1Kent, MD4.0440$50,000 to $500,000
November 169:24 AM ESTF0Chester, PA0.110
November 169:30 AM ESTF1New Castle, DE1.0171$50,000 to $500,000
November 169:45 AM ESTF1Montgomery, PA1.5503$50,000 to $500,000
November 1610:15 AM ESTF0Madison, NY1.7100$50,000 to $500,000
November 1610:20 AM ESTF0Gloucester, NJ1.0501$50,000 to $500,000
November 1611:00 AM ESTF0Montgomery, PA5.250$5,000 to $50,000
November 1610:15 AM CSTF1Mercer, PA to NJ5.08001$500,000 to $5 million
November 1611:15 AM ESTF0Westchester, NY0.513
November 1611:30 AM ESTF0Sussex, NJ0.550
November 1611:40 AM ESTF1Sullivan, NY1.5200$5 million to $50 million
November 1612:00 PM ESTF0Essex, NJ0.213
November 1612:04 PM ESTF0Middlesex, NJ0.513
November 1612:20 PM ESTF1Bergen, NJ0.530
November 1612:25 PM ESTF0Union, NJ1.013
November 1612:30 PM ESTF0Hamilton, NY1.7100
November 161:20 PM ESTF1Saratoga, NY0.3201$50,000 to $500,000
November 161:50 PM ESTF0Saratoga, NY0.123$5,000 to $50,000
November 162:30 PM ESTF0Rensselaer, NY0.117$5,000 to $50,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.