Tornadoes · United States · New York · 2008

EF0 tornado, Camden, New York, May 17, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 0.6 miles across Oneida County on May 17, 2008, touching down at 6:50 PM EDT and reaching 250 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 of property damage.

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.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

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

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. 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.

  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
EF0
Date
May 17, 2008
Touchdown
6:50 PM EDT (22:50 UTC)
Lifted
6:52 PM EDT (22:52 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.6 miles (0.9 km)
Path width
250 yards (229 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000
County
Oneida County
Touchdown point
43.353, -75.777
Lift-off point
43.354, -75.768
Record number
0805171650-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Showers and a few thunderstorms developed out ahead of a cold frontal boundary. There were isolated severe thunderstorms east of Lake Ontario, and one of these storms produced a weak tornado.

An EF0 tornado touched down near the west branch of Fish Creek. A barn collapsed, and siding was riped off a portion of the house. Several large branches over one foot in diameter were broken off trees, and a snowmobile trailer was blown approximately 20-25 feet. Debris from the yard was found 1/2 mile away.

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)ExpiredProductOffice
00:42 UTC01:15 UTCTornado 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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

10.8 hours before the tornado, 174 km from the path. May 17, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Albany, NY at 12:00Z on 2008-05-17Temperature 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 -96298, lifted condensation level 1438 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2008-05-17The 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 17 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 17 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-96298 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1438 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
17 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
20 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Albany, NY (KALY), 00:00Z

1.2 hours after it, 174 km from the path. May 18, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Albany, NY at 00:00Z on 2008-05-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 30 joules per kilogram, CIN -32, lifted condensation level 1026 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 2008-05-18The 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 109 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 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
30 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-32 J/kg
Surface CAPE
182 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1026 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
109 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
109 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Ft Drum radar (KTYX), 45 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:50 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
22:50 UTCTORNADO1 Nw CamdenOneida, NYEF0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN NEAR THE WEST BRANCH OF FISH CREEK. BARN COLLAPSED...SIDING WAS RIPPED OFF PORTION OF THE HOUSE...SEVERAL LARGE BRANCHES OVER 1 FOOT IN DIAMETER WERE BROKEN OFF TREES...AND A SNOWMOBILE TRAILER W
23:10 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Nw CamdenOneida, NY
00:05 UTCHAIL 0.88CiceroOnondaga, NY1 MINUTE OF PENNY TO NICKEL SIZE HAIL. 8 MINUTES OF PEA SIZE.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in New YorkEvery tornado in New York since 1950Warnings in force in New York nowThe forecast where you are

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.