Tornadoes · United States · New York · 1990

F1 tornado, Delaware County, New York, June 21, 1990

This F1 tornado ran 0.7 miles across Delaware County on June 21, 1990, touching down at 4:45 PM EDT and reaching 220 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 to $500,000 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
June 21, 1990
Touchdown
4:45 PM EDT (20:45 UTC)
Path length
0.7 miles (1.1 km)
Path width
220 yards (201 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Delaware County
Touchdown point
42.180, -74.780
Record number
786

The warnings

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

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:22 UTC21:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBGM
21:31 UTC22:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBGM

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 07:09 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

8.8 hours before the tornado, 96 km from the path. June 21, 1990.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Albany, NY at 12:00Z on 1990-06-21Temperature 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 -9116, lifted condensation level 850 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 12:00Z on 1990-06-21The 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 34 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9116 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
850 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
34 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
14 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Albany, NY (KALB), 00:00Z

3.2 hours after it, 96 km from the path. June 22, 1990.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Albany, NY at 00:00Z on 1990-06-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 860 joules per kilogram, CIN -23, lifted condensation level 1185 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 00:00Z on 1990-06-22The 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 150 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 63 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
860 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-23 J/kg
Surface CAPE
892 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1185 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
63 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
150 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
209 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
4.1
0-3 km lapse rate
7.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1990 tornado in New YorkEvery tornado in New York since 1950Warnings in force in New York nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 21, 1990

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 213:44 PM CDTF0Nowata, OK0.120
June 213:52 PM CDTF1Nowata, OK0.250
June 214:28 PM CDTF1Craig, OK0.573
June 216:30 PM CDTF0Pawnee, OK0.120
June 217:12 PM CDTF0Pawnee, OK0.123
June 217:38 PM CDTF1Pawnee, OK0.550

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.