Tornadoes · United States · New York · 2002

F0 tornado, Endicott, New York, May 31, 2002

This F0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Broome County on May 31, 2002, touching down at 3:55 PM EDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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 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.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
May 31, 2002
Touchdown
3:55 PM EDT (19:55 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Broome County
Touchdown point
42.150, -76.080
Lift-off point
42.150, -76.080
Record number
125

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado briefly touched down on Bean Hill Road northwest of Endicott. The damage was consistent with F0 and about 60 MPH winds. The damage was entirely to small to moderate sized trees which were twisted and downed in several different directions. An eyewitness reported to have seen the swirling debris associated with the funnel. There was no damage to the home close to where the tornado tracked.

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

The warnings

18 minutes of warning. NWS BGM issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:37 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:14 UTC19:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBGM
19:25 UTC20:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBGM
19:37 UTC20:15 UTCTornado WarningBGM
20:11 UTC21:15 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:16 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 (KALY), 12:00Z

7.9 hours before the tornado, 194 km from the path. May 31, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Albany, NY at 12:00Z on 2002-05-31Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 59 joules per kilogram, CIN -161, lifted condensation level 835 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 12:00Z on 2002-05-31The 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 138 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.193958Sfc1 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
59 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-161 J/kg
Surface CAPE
131 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
835 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
138 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
141 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Albany, NY (KALY), 00:00Z

4.1 hours after it, 194 km from the path. June 1, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Albany, NY at 00:00Z on 2002-06-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 151 joules per kilogram, CIN -80, lifted condensation level 1134 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 2002-06-01The 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 -31 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 71 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
151 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-80 J/kg
Surface CAPE
534 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1134 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
71 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-31 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
13 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Binghamton/Broome (BGM), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:48 UTC69.862.6220° 15 kt211003.4+RA
17:56 UTC6663210° 18 kt251003.4+TSRA BR
18:07 UTC66.262.6210° 15 kt231003.4-TSRA BR
18:14 UTC66.262.6220° 13 kt231003.4-TSRA BR
18:56 UTC7066210° 10 kt1002.7BR
19:32 UTC69.864.4210° 8 kt1002-TSRA
19:41 UTC69.866.2200° 8 kt1001.7+TSRA BR
19:56 UTC6764250° 12 kt201001.4-TSRA BR
19:59 UTC66.262.6240° 9 kt201001.4-TSRA BR
20:08 UTC66.262.6250° 6 kt1001.4TS
20:18 UTC66.262.6280° 8 kt1001.4TS
20:56 UTC7164290° 10 kt201001.7TS
21:43 UTC71.664.4230° 8 kt1002

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

The radar

The Binghamton radar (KBGM), 10 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:56 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.

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of May 31, 2002

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 311:55 PM EDTF1Fulton, NY0.125$200,000
May 313:45 PM EDTF1Tioga, NY6.01,0007$600,000
May 314:10 PM EDTF0Broome, NY0.7100$10,000
May 314:30 PM EDTF1Oxford, ME2.1125
May 314:46 PM EDTF0Otsego, NY3.0150$10,000
May 314:00 PM CDTF1Wayne, NY to PA1.53001$20,000
May 316:55 PM EDTF0Glades, FL0.515$30,000
May 317:03 PM EDTF1Dutchess, NY0.5100$40,000
May 317:24 PM EDTF1Western Connecticut Planning Region, CT0.575
May 317:40 PM EDTF0South Central Connecticut Planning Region, CT0.210

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.