Tornadoes · United States · New York · 1994
F1 tornado, Geneva, New York, August 20, 1994
This F1 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Ontario County on August 20, 1994, touching down at 1:30 AM EDT and reaching 100 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.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- August 20, 1994
- Touchdown
- 1:30 AM EDT (05:30 UTC)
- Path length
- 2.0 miles (3.2 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $50,000 to $500,000
- County
- Ontario County
- Touchdown point
- 42.870, -76.980
- Record number
- 927
What the Weather Service recorded
An isolated thunderstorm spawned a weak tornado in the City of Geneva near Packwood Road and Route 14. The initial touchdown occurred on the west side of Rte. 14 where trees were downed. As the storm crossed Route 14 it destroyed empty grain elevators. Pieces of the buildings were strewn across fields to the northeast. Further east on Packwood Rd. about a dozen trees were downed. On Town Line Rd to the north of Packwood Rd. there was extensive damage to a stand of trees. Approximately 90% of mature trees in a two acre area were totally destroyed.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The surface observations
Ithaca (ITH), 60 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 1994 tornado in New YorkEvery tornado in New York since 1950Warnings in force in New York nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of August 20, 1994
1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 20 | 4:20 PM CDT | F0 | Graves, KY | 0.8 | 10 | $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.