Tornadoes · United States · New York · 2010

EF1 tornado, Auriesville, New York, August 3, 2010

This EF1 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Montgomery County on August 3, 2010, touching down at 4:29 PM EDT and reaching 75 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.

  1. EF065 to 85 mph

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

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

    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
EF1
Date
August 3, 2010
Touchdown
4:29 PM EDT (20:29 UTC)
Lifted
4:31 PM EDT (20:31 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Montgomery County
Touchdown point
42.925, -74.305
Lift-off point
42.922, -74.304
Record number
1008031429-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An upper level disturbance moved across the region Tuesday, August 3rd, triggering a severe thunderstorm over Montgomery County which produced brief touchdowns of a tornado near Fonda and Auriesville.

A tornado briefly touched down near Fonda with damage confined to snapped and uprooted trees. Maximum estimated wind speed were 90 mph.

A tornado briefly touched down mainly on the grounds of the Auriesville Shrine, with damage confined mostly to snapped and uprooted trees. Maximum estimated wind were 100 mph.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:18 UTC20:56 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningALY

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 19:45 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

8.5 hours before the tornado, 47 km from the path. August 3, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Albany, NY at 12:00Z on 2010-08-03Temperature 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 -66769, lifted condensation level 931 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 2010-08-03The 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 143 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-66769 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
931 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
143 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
151 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Albany, NY (KALY), 00:00Z

3.5 hours after it, 47 km from the path. August 4, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Albany, NY at 00:00Z on 2010-08-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 656 joules per kilogram, CIN -21, lifted condensation level 1164 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 2010-08-04The 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 179 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
656 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-21 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1083 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1164 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
179 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
246 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
5.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Albany radar (KENX), 42 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:26 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
20:22 UTCTORNADO 13 Ese FondaMontgomery, NYBRIEF TOUCHDOWN WITH DAMAGE CONFINED TO SNAPPED AND UPROOTED TREES. MAXIMUM ESTIMATED WIND SPEED OF 90 MPH.
20:29 UTCTSTM WND DMGAuriesvilleMontgomery, NYONE TREE...MULTIPLE TREE LIMBS AND WIRES DOWN.
20:29 UTCTORNADO 14 Ese FondaMontgomery, NYBRIEF TOUCHDOWN. DAMAGE CONFINED TO MOSTLY SNAPPED AND UPROOTED TREES. DAMAGE WAS MAINLY LOCATED ON GROUNDS OF AURIESVILLE SHRINE. MAXIMUM ESTIMATED WIND SPEED OF 100 MPH.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 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 3, 2010

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 311:02 AM MDTEF0Campbell, WY0.110$1,000
August 34:22 PM EDTEF1Montgomery, NY0.250
August 36:57 PM CDTEF0Hanson, SD0.950
August 35:15 PM MSTEF0Apache, AZ1.040
August 39:35 PM EDTEF0Caledonia, VT0.150$25,000

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.