Tornadoes · United States · New York · 1995

F2 tornado, Columbia County, New York, May 29, 1995

This F2 tornado ran 15.0 miles across Columbia County on May 29, 1995, touching down at 6:40 PM EDT and reaching 300 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 5, 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 mph

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

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    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
F2
Date
May 29, 1995
Touchdown
6:40 PM EDT (22:40 UTC)
Path length
15.0 miles (24.1 km)
Path width
300 yards (274 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
5
Property damage
$5 million to $50 million
County
Columbia County
Touchdown point
42.200, -73.780
Lift-off point
42.200, -73.520
Record number
595

The warnings

2 minutes of warning. NWS ALY issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:38 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:26 UTC23:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningALY
22:38 UTC23:45 UTCTornado WarningALY
23:28 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningALY

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 Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:54 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

10.7 hours before the tornado, 56 km from the path. May 29, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Albany, NY at 12:00Z on 1995-05-29Temperature 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 0, lifted condensation level 488 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 1995-05-29The 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 303 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 52 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
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
7 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
488 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
52 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
303 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
366 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Albany, NY (KALB), 00:00Z

1.3 hours after it, 56 km from the path. May 30, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Albany, NY at 00:00Z on 1995-05-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 215 joules per kilogram, CIN -73, lifted condensation level 1037 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 1995-05-30The 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 6 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
215 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-73 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1155 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1037 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
6 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
88 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1995 tornado in New YorkEvery tornado in New York since 1950Warnings in force in New York nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 29, 1995

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 294:00 PM EDTF1Lancaster, PA1.020
May 294:25 PM EDTF2Lancaster, PA2.51001
May 294:35 PM EDTF1Lehigh, PA0.550
May 295:00 PM EDTF1Montgomery, PA1.550
May 295:10 PM EDTF0Orange, NY0.550$500 to $5,000
May 296:00 PM EDTF1Burlington, NJ0.850
May 296:06 PM EDTF4Great Barrington tornado, MA11.5300324$5 million to $50 million
May 296:23 PM EDTF1South Central Connecticut Planning Region, CT2.073$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.