EF1 tornado, Pharsalia to East Mc Donough, New York, April 28, 2011

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.

Rating

EF1

Date

April 28, 2011

Touchdown

3:58 AM EDT (07:58 UTC)

Lifted

4:03 AM EDT (08:03 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

3.4 miles (5.5 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$75,000

County

Chenango County

Touchdown point

42.435, -75.733

Lift-off point

42.470, -75.685

Record number

1104280158-01

A significant severe weather outbreak developed across central New York as a storm system moved east from the Great Lakes. First, showers and thunderstorms developed early in the evening on the 27th, as an upper level disturbance approached the region. Two of the more significant storms included one supercell that produced a tornado in Steuben county, and a bowing line segment that caused tree and structural damage across Steuben, Chemung and Schuyler counties. Elsewhere across central New York, storms caused scattered wind damage and heavy rain. ||After a brief break in the late evening, mini super cells developed overnight ahead of a cold front. Several tornadoes and severe thunderstorms developed between about 1:30 a.m. and 6 a.m., with many reports of damage. Most of the tornadoes were EF1 and EF2. Significant flash flooding also transpired during the overnight hours.

The tornado touched down on county Route 7 in Pharsalia and produced EF1 damage to a few barns and some trees. The tornado traveled northeast approximately 8 miles before dissipating on Pigeon Hill Road in Pharsalia. Intensity for most of the path was estimated at EF1, however EF2 intensity was estimated along North Road and Center Road in Pharsalia. In those areas hundreds of large trees were snapped and uprooted leveling a dense forest. Over the hill a house trailer was lifted and demolished, a two story barn was demolished, a small pond had its water sucked out, and a jeep was moved several feet and hit with debris. Outbuildings were also destroyed.

A tornado touched down in the early morning hours of April 28 about 4.5 miles south-southeast of McDonough and moved northeast cutting a path through heavy woods. The tornado passed just south of Lake Ludlow where a couple homes where damaged by the storm. The tornado path appeared to be its strongest and widest just south of the lake through the wooded area. It continued to the northeast where the path narrowed again and weakened. The tornado lifted a little less than 2 miles south of east McDonough.||A significant swath of trees were also blown down southwest of the tornado track on Waldron Road. These trees were all pointing to the southeast in a slightly divergent pattern and were associated with a significant downburst of wind.

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

46 minutes of warning. NWS BGM issued a tornado warning for this county at 07:12 UTC, 46 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 08:15 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 00:20 UTC and running to 08:00 UTC.

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 06:09 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 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 Binghamton radar (KBGM), 36 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:59 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in New YorkEvery tornado in New York since 1950Warnings in force in New York nowThe forecast where you are

39 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.