EF0 tornado, Babylon to Wyandanch, New York, August 28, 2011

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

August 28, 2011

Touchdown

4:50 AM EDT (08:50 UTC)

Lifted

4:54 AM EDT (08:54 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

4.0 miles (6.4 km)

Path width

220 yards (201 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Suffolk County

Touchdown point

40.700, -73.320

Lift-off point

40.750, -73.350

Record number

1108280250-01

As Hurricane Irene moved north along the Atlantic coast and interacted with land, it weakened and made its second landfall as a Tropical Storm near Little Egg Inlet along the southeast NJ Coast on August 28, 2011 around 5:35 am EDT. Tropical Storm Irene made its third landfall in New York City around 9:00 am.||Irene brought sustained tropical storm winds, heavy rain, and destructive storm surge along with two confirmed tornadoes.||Seven deaths occurred:||one 53 year old man was found dead after a 3 hr. rescue effort after his boat overturned in strong rapids while boating in the Croton River in Croton (Westchester County)||one 68 year old man drowned in a marina off City Island in the Bronx; where he had gone to check on his boat.||one 52 year old man drove through flood waters around 3 barricades and drowned in the Town of Tuxedo in Orange County, NY.||one older man died wind surfing in Suffolk County during the afternoon of 8/28/2011||one 51 year old man fell 30 feet from a 60-foot high tree while trimming large tree branches in Roslyn Heights in Nassau County on 9/9/2011.||one child came into contact with downed electrical wires and was electrocuted in Rockland County; died 9/10-11/2011||one man came into contact with downed electrical wires and was electrocuted in Rockland County||At least 600,000 people were ordered (both voluntary and mandatory) to evacuate from storm surge and fresh water inland flooding.||Widespread power outages lasted up to 1 week following Tropical Storm Irene.

Based on a National Weather Service Storm Survey, a weak F0 tornado was confirmed from near Babylon northwest to near Wyandanch in southwest Suffolk County.||The estimated maximum wind gust was 75 mph.||This weak tornado was spawned by a rotating thunderstorm within a spiral rain band rotating around then Hurricane Irene several hours before it made landfall in New York City.

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

4 minutes of warning. NWS OKX issued a tornado warning for this county at 08:46 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 09:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 08:38 UTC and running to 13:08 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 General Thunderstorms Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:33 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 Brookhaven radar (KOKX), 43 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 08:48 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

2 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.