EF2 tornado, Savannah to Conquest, New York, August 21, 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 mph

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

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

August 21, 2011

Touchdown

3:15 PM EDT (19:15 UTC)

Lifted

3:35 PM EDT (19:35 UTC)

On the ground

20 minutes

Path length

7.9 miles (12.7 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$250,000

Counties

Wayne and Cayuga counties

Touchdown point

43.066, -76.785

Lift-off point

43.121, -76.649

Record number

1108211315-01

A cold front crossed the region bringing thunderstorms to the northern Finger Lakes region during the afternoon hours. Thunderstorm winds, gusting to 65 mph, downed trees and powers lines in Cato and Port Byron. Hail up to an inch-and-a-quarter diameter was reported in Meridian. The thunderstorms spawned a tornado which moved from Savannah in Wayne County to Conquest in Cayuga County. A NWS survey concluded that the EF2 tornado snapped trees, took down over a dozen power poles, and completely removed two roofs from their homes. Several outbuildings, including a barn, were completely destroyed. One eyewitness reported seeing two funnels. The path length was 8 miles and width was 200 yards. Winds were estimated between 115 and 120 mph.

A tornado touched down in Savannah in Wayne County the continued east northeast into Cayuga County.

A tornado moved from Wayne county to Conquest in northern Cayuga county.

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

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.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:18 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 Ft Drum radar (KTYX), 112 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:14 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

1 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.