Tornadoes · United States · New York · 2007
EF1 tornado, Castleton Corners to Tompkinsville, New York, August 8, 2007
From Castleton Corners to Tompkinsville, this EF1 tornado ran 1.9 miles across Richmond County on August 8, 2007, touching down at 6:22 AM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
EF2111 to 135 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.
EF3136 to 165 mph
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
EF5over 200 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
- EF1
- Date
- August 8, 2007
- Touchdown
- 6:22 AM EDT (10:22 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:30 AM EDT (10:30 UTC)
- On the ground
- 8 minutes
- Path length
- 1.9 miles (3.1 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Richmond County
- Touchdown point
- 40.627, -74.108
- Lift-off point
- 40.630, -74.080
- Record number
- 0708080422-01
What the Weather Service recorded
An approaching cold font, interacting with energy aloft, produced numerous thunderstorms, including one which produced two tornadoes across Southern New York City, and later produced wind damage in Nassau County. In addition, the storms produced copious amounts of rainfall which caused widespread significant flash flooding in New York City, including several subway lines, and Long Island.
The first tornado touchdown was in Staten Island at approximately |6:22 am in the vicinity of St. Austins Place in the Livingston-Randall Manor area. The tornado moved east, with additional damage occurring in the Tompkinsville area. Most of the damage in Staten Island was to trees, and estimated at EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, with winds of 86 to 100 mph. ||Based on re-analysis of radar data, the Staten Island tornado apparently dissipated as a second circulation developed just north of the first circulation. The damage in Tompkinsville may be a result of this second circulation. |
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17:00 UTC | 20:02 UTC | Heat Advisory | OKX |
| 10:08 UTC | 12:30 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | OKX |
| 10:28 UTC | 10:38 UTC | Tornado Warning | OKX |
| 17:00 UTC | 22:00 UTC | Heat Advisory | OKX |
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 General Thunderstorms Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:47 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.
Brookhaven, NY (KOKX), 00:00Z
10.4 hours before the tornado, 107 km from the path. August 8, 2007.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 98 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -237 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 327 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1372 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 33 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 13 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 29 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 30 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.1 K/km
The surface observations
Newark Intl (EWR), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 08:51 UTC | 79 | 75 | 210° 9 kt | 1006.8 | TSRA BR | |
| 09:13 UTC | 78.8 | 75.2 | 260° 9 kt | 1007.5 | +TSRA BR | |
| 09:34 UTC | 75.2 | 73.4 | 5 kt | 23 | 1008.1 | +TSRA FG |
| 09:51 UTC | 77 | 74 | 230° 7 kt | 15 | 1006.4 | +TSRA BR |
| 10:07 UTC | 77 | 73.4 | 150° 9 kt | 17 | 1005.8 | +TSRA BR |
| 10:32 UTC | 77 | 73.4 | 320° 10 kt | 20 | 1006.4 | -TSRA BR |
| 10:51 UTC | 77 | 74 | 310° 11 kt | 1007.1 | TS BR | |
| 11:17 UTC | 77 | 73.4 | 330° 7 kt | 1007.1 | BR | |
| 11:51 UTC | 78 | 73 | 240° 4 kt | 1006.8 | HZ | |
| 12:17 UTC | 78.8 | 75.2 | 250° 5 kt | 1007.1 | BR |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 80 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:22 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09:49 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 0 | Todt Hill | Richmond, NY | *** 1 FATAL *** TRAFFIC ACCIDENT RESULTING IN FATALITY. HEAVY RAIN AND PONDING CAUSE DRIVER TO PULL OVER AND WAS REAR ENDED. STATEN ISLAND EXPRESSWAY AND BRADLEY AVENUE. |
| 10:22 UTC | TORNADO 1 | 2 W Tompkinsville | Richmond, NY | DAMAGE IN THE VACINITY OF SAINT AUSTINS PLACE IN LIVINGSTON AREA OF STATEN ISLAND. ADDITIONAL DAMAGE IN THE TOMPKINVILLE AREA. |
| 10:32 UTC | MARINE TSTM WIND 47 | 1 N Bay Ridge | Kings, NY | IS 30 - MARY WHITE OVINGTON SCHOOL. |
| 10:35 UTC | TORNADO 2 | Bay Ridge | Kings, NY | *** 9 INJ *** EF-2 DAMAGE CONFIRMED BY NWS STORM SURVEY TEAM - 8 MINOR INJURIES AND 1 MODERATE REPORTED BY NYC OEM. |
| 10:35 UTC | TORNADO | Bay Ridge | Kings, NY | EF-2 DAMAGE CONFIRMED BY NWS STORM SURVEY TEAM. SOME INJURIES OCCURRED, BUT NUMBER IS NOT YET KNOWN. |
| 10:37 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 2 S Astoria | Queens, NY | FLOODING CLOSING LANES ON WEST BOUND LONG ISLAND EXPRESSWAY AT BROOKLYN-QUEENS EXPRESSWAY. |
| 10:40 UTC | TORNADO 1 | 1 N Flatbush | Kings, NY | NUMEROUS TREES...APROXIMATELY 30...UPROOTED ALONG OCEAN AVENUE BETWEEN BEVERLEY ROAD AND CHURCH AVENUE. THE DAMAGE ALSO EXTENDS TO THE WEST TO ARGYLE RD. THIS IS AN APPARENT ADDITIONAL TOUCHDOWN OF THE SAME TORNADO THAT |
| 10:43 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 1 Ne Midtown Manhattan | New York, NY | LANE CLOSURES ON FDR DRIVE BETWEEN 63RD AND 78TH STREETS. |
| 10:43 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 2 S Greenpoint | Kings, NY | FLODING ON THE BROOKLYN-QUEENS EXPRESSWAY AT FLUSHING AVENUE. |
| 10:46 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Harlem | New York, NY | FLOODING ON THE HARLEM RIVER DRIVE AT 145TH STREET. |
| 10:50 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 1 Ne Midtown Manhattan | New York, NY | SEVERE FLOODING CLOSED FDR DRIVE. |
| 10:59 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 1 Nw Jamaica | Queens, NY | SEVERE FLOODING ON GRAND CENTRAL PARKWAY AT JACKIE ROBINSON PARKWAY. |
| 11:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 S Bay Ridge | Kings, NY | NUMEROUS TREES AND WIRES DOWN, SEVERAL HOMES WITH ROOFS BLOWN OFF AND OTHER STRUCTURAL DAMAGE IN TOWN OF DYKER HEIGHTS |
| 11:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Wsw Crown Heights | Kings, NY | NUMEROUS TREES AND WIRES DOWN, SEVERAL HOMES WITH ROOFS BLOWN OFF AND STRUCTURAL DAMAGE IN TOWN OF PARK SLOPE |
| 11:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Sw Crown Heights | Kings, NY | NUMEROUS TREES/WIRES DOWN, SEVERAL HOMES WITH ROOFS BLOWN OFF AND OTHER STRUCTUAL DAMAGE IN TOWN OF SUNSET PARK |
| 11:03 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 2 W Wyandanch | Suffolk, NY | ROAD FLOODING ON LITTLE EAST NECK ROAD |
| 11:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 S Flatbush | Kings, NY | 25 TO 30 TREES UPROOTED STARTING AT BEVERLY ROAD AT OCEAN PARKWAY AND CONTINUING NORTHWARD SEVERAL BLOCKS TOWARDS CHURCH AVENUE, PROSPECT PARKWAY HAD 2 LANES CLOSED DUE TO FALLEN TREES...POSSIBLE TORNADO...PENDING ON RES |
| 11:05 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Triborough Bridge | Queens, NY | SEVERE FLOODING ON GRAND CENTRAL PARKWAY AT ENTRANCE TO TRIBOROUGH BRIDGE. |
| 11:15 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Garden City | Nassau, NY | NUMEROUS CARS SUBMERGED ON CHERRY VALLEY AVENUE AND MEADOW STREET AT LIRR UNDERPASS |
| 11:36 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 1 Ne Kennedy Airport | Queens, NY | SEVERE FLOODING ON BELT PARKWAY AT 225TH STREET. |
| 12:28 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | E Woodlawn | Bronx, NY | FLOODING CLOSED BRONX RIVER PARKWAY AT 233RD STREET. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 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 8, 2007
4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.