F0 tornado, Rock Hill, New York, June 2, 2000

1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

   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 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.

Rating

F0

Date

June 2, 2000

Touchdown

6:30 PM EDT (22:30 UTC)

Path length

1.0 miles (1.6 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$250,000

County

Sullivan County

Touchdown point

41.630, -74.600

Lift-off point

41.630, -74.600

Record number

337

A National Weather Service Binghamton survey team studied wind damage in the Emerald Green community, approximately 10 miles southeast of Monticello, NY on Saturday June 3rd 2000. The conclusions were that the damage, which occurred around 630 pm June 2nd, was tornadic and rated as 0 on the Fujita scale (F-0). This rating estimates the wind speed between 40 and 72 mph.The survey began near Essex Street where damage appeared to be straight line, with several trees laying in the same direction. One tree fell through a parked car. Although the damage did not show a tornadic pattern, it was curious how isolated the damage was. Witnesses at the scene claimed there was a lull in the storm, then a sudden whistling and then the sound of a "freight train." One man claimed to see rapid rotation within the rain as the trees were lifted and pushed over. Further damage was witnessed a few tenths of a mile to the east on Scarborough Circle. Several trees were knocked down toward the east-southeast. One tree downed caused considerable damage to a porch/deck. Again the consensus was the wind was straight line, albeit curiously isolated.Minor damage also occurred along East Lake Shore Drive. Shingles were torn off one house and a few shallow rooted trees were toppled in convergent directions. A fence to a tennis court across the street was bent over. A witness from this scene claimed to have seen "a cloud touch down and begin to move across the lake", right in line with the main damage path.Further to the east-southeast, more damage was discovered. Four or five trees were twisted mid to low trunk and sheared off. The trunks were estimated at 8-10 inches. Witnesses in a nearby house claimed the storm seemed to have stopped, and then the rain and strong, damaging wind wrapped back in. Behind this damage to the west-northwest was an ascending field leading up to a ridge top. This area comprises an unfinished golf course. Further investigation led to far more tree and vegetative damage. It was noted along the hill that damage increased in coverage further up, lending credence to the theory of a funnel aloft with the ridge rising up to meet the rotation. Numerous large trees were uprooted and fell in convergent patterns, and there were also trees twisted and sheared off from their lower to middle trunks. At the top of the ridge, a home was discovered with 18 large diameter trees (8-10") uprooted, sheared off, or twisted along the mid-high trunks. Some of the uprooted trees appeared to be in a convergent pattern. A gentleman interviewed was not home at the time of the storm. A couple trees narrowly missed a direct hit on his home, but crushed a corner of the residence's back deck.Based upon the previously described eyewitness accounts, and the twisting / convergent damage pattern of many trees, the storm was determined to be a weak tornado. Track information from a global geo-positioning unit clearly exhibited a west-northwest to east-southeast oriented path of about 1 mile in length. The tornado was up to 200 yards wide near the ridge top with smaller damage swaths in downhill locations. The tornado was likely aloft for much of the storm, with ground interaction most numerous where the ridge rose up to meet it.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:09 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 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.

Monticello (MSV), 18 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Albany radar (KENX), 115 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:29 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in New YorkEvery tornado in New York since 1950Warnings in force in New York nowThe forecast where you are

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

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