F0 tornado, Amsterdam, New York, June 16, 2002

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 16, 2002

Touchdown

12:50 PM EDT (16:50 UTC)

Path length

3.2 miles (5.1 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$70,000

County

Montgomery County

Touchdown point

42.930, -74.180

Lift-off point

42.930, -74.180

Record number

756

Thunderstorms developed along an occluded frontal bounday by midday June 16. Their intensity was aided by a large cold pocket of air aloft combined with the strong June midday sunshine. As the storms approached the Hudson Valley of eastern New York, some of them became severe. Most of the reports were of hail damage. However, there two confirmed tornado touchdowns as well as one non-tornadic destructive wind report. The first of two tornados in eastern New York touched intermittenly down in the town of Florida, Montgomery County between Klapmeyer and Hartley Roads, to the southwest of Amsterdam. The path of this tornado varied between 50 and 100 yards and was approximately 3 miles long. Numerous trees were downed and there was minor damage to several houses as well as one barns. The tornado vortex then lifted back off the ground but was still visible as a funnel cloud. The vortex touched down again briefly in the town of Amsterdam, near Mcquade Road. This second path was only a quarter mile long and about 50 yards wide. Approximately 10 trees were knocked down and minor damage was reported to two homes. The top wind gusts were estimated to be around 70 mph with this tornado. A second twister, ranked as an F1 with top winds estimated around 100 mph, touched down near Pawling in Dutchess County, very close to the place a tornado had struck just two weeks before. The path of this tornado was 125 yards wide and a mile long. Damage was mostly confined to many downed and twisted trees. One tree did fall onto a garage thereby damaging it. Thunderstorm winds blew two trees down on Ravena Road in the town of Coeyamns, Albany County. Golf ball size hail (1.75 inches in diameter) was reported in Chatham while ping pong size hail (1.5 inches in diameter) was reported in the town of Stockport, Columbia County. One inch hail fell at Hopewell Junction, Dutchess County. There were additional reports of dime size hail in Schenectady, Rennselaer and Greene Counties.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:30 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.

NWS Albany, NY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jun 16, 3:40 AM EDT, 9 hours 10 minutes earlier.

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBANY
340 AM EDT SUN JUN 16 2002

WORKZONES AVAILABLE. LOOK FOR A 4 AM LAUNCH.

.DISC...NAGGING UA TROUGH FINALLY SLOWLY ON THE MOVE AND WEAKENING.
RGL RADARS SHOW SCATTERED SHOWER ACTIVITY PERSISTING THROUGHOUT THE
NIGHT. HOWEVER CLD TO GRD LTG STRIKES EARLIER ASSOCIATED WITH
SHOWERS OFF OF LAKE ONTARIO HAVE ALL BUT DISAPPEARED. TWO
SHORTWAVES...AND A WEAK OCCLD BOUNDARY...WILL BE THE FOCUS FOR MORE
ACTIVITY THROUGHOUT THE DAY. THE STRONGER SHORTWAVE AND OCC FRONT
WILL MOVE INTO OUR REGION FROM THE WEST LATER THIS AFTERNOON.

THE BIG WX PROBLEM OF THE DAY IS WHETHER OR NOT CONVECTION COULD
BECOME SEVERE. PLUGGING VALUES INTO THE MAGLENTA EQ FROM THE ETA
BUFKIT GAVE US A VALUE AT KALY OF 2.25...WHICH WOULD PLACE US INTO A
MAJOR SEVERE EVENT (ASSUMING CONVECTION IS REALIZED).
HOWEVER...THE MESO-ETA BUFKIT WAS GENTLER...GIVING A VALUE OF
2.75...WHICH TRANSLATES TO A MORE  MINOR EVENT.

SFC BASED CAPES WERE PROGGED BY BUFKIT TO BE IN THE 300-600 J/KG
RANGE...WHILE THE AWIPS SOUNDINGS (AS USUAL) INDICATE MUCH HIGHER
CAPES APPROACHING OR EVEN EXCEEDING 1000 J/KG. THEY APPEAR TOO HIGH
SO WILL GO MORE WITH MODEL SOUNDINGS VALUES. EITHER WAY...AFTER
PERUSING THE ENTIRE LOCAL SEVERE WX CHECKLIST...WE STILL THINK THE
THREAT OF SVR IS VERY SMALL TODAY. (THERE COULD BE A PULSER TYPE
ISLD SVR OR 2). THE MAJOR LIMITING FACTORS INCLUDE SFC TDS <
15C...CWA NOT UNDER THE RR OR LF QUAD OF THE H2.5 JET...THE SURFACE
CAPES BELOW THE ABUNDANT THRESHOLD...AND THE BULK RICHARD NUMBER
IS LESS THAN 10 WHICH IMPLIES TOO MUCH SHEAR AND NOT BUOYANCY.
HOWEVER...THE WBZ IS FORECAST TO BE IN THE VICINITY OF 7KFT...WHICH
IS PRIME FOR HAIL. THEREFORE...WILL ADD QUALIFIER TO
THUNDERSTORMS...MIGHT CONTAIN HAIL. WE BELIEVE THAT MOST HAIL WILL
BE OF THE PEA-SIZE VARIETY...BUT THERE IS AN OUTSIDE POSSIBILITY OF
LARGER HAIL. OF COURSE THE INCOMING DAYCREW SHOULD RE-EXAMINE ALL
THE PARAMETERS BASED ON THE 12Z DATA.

SHOWERS MIGHT LINGER INTO THE EVENING HOURS AS THE SHORTWAVE PULLS
AWAY...BUT WITH WEAK NVA AND STABILIZATION LATER ON...WILL KEEP THE
OVERNIGHT PORTION DRY. ON MONDAY...WHILE THE UA LOW IS TO OUR
EAST...A COLD POCKET WILL REMAIN OVER US ALONG WITH LINGERING LOW
LEVEL MOISTURE. THESE TWO FACTORS COULD SET THE STAGE FOR MORE
SCATTERED SHOWER ACTIVITY. SFC BASED CAPES STILL RISE TO ABOUT 300
OR SO BUT FOR NOW WILL NOT INCLUDE THUNDER AS IT LOOKS AS OF
CONVECTION MIGHT BE EVEN MORE LOW-TOPPED THAN TODAY. THE COLD POCKET
REMAINS AT H5 NOT ONLY TUE...BUT INTO AT LEAST EARLY WED. WILL LEAVE
THE CHC IN FOR TUE. FOR NOW...WILL KEEP WED DRY (CAN GEM SUPPORTS A
DRY FORECAST) BUT A FEW SHOWERS COULD STILL DEVELOP.

THE 00Z AVN NOW INDICATES A STRONG UA RIDGE WILL BUILD INTO THE OHIO
VALLEY COME THURSDAY...AND FINALLY START DRIVING SOME SUMMER HEAT
OUR WAY. THIS SCENARIO COULD SIG CHANGE THE EXTENDED. FOR NOW...JUST
RAISE TEMPS A LITTLE ON THU/FRI AND LEFT SAT ALONE.

THE ETA/FWC AND MAV NOS ARE GENERALLY IN PRETTY CLOSE AGREEMENT AND
WILL NOT STRAY MUCH FROM THEM.

.HYDROLOGIC STATUS...BASIN QPF AVERAGES TODAY AND TONIGHT SHOULD BE
AROUND A QUARTER OF AN INCH OR SO. TSTMS WITH HEAVY RAIN COULD
PRODUCE LOCALIZED DRAINAGE PROBLEMS... BUT DON/T EXPECT TSTMS TO BE
WDSPRD ENOUGH FOR ANY SIGNIFICANT HYDRO PROBLEMS.

.ALY...NONE.

HWJIV

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.

The Albany radar (KENX), 39 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:50 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 2002 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.