Tornadoes · United States · New York · 2011

EF0 tornado, Guilford to Rockdale, New York, July 29, 2011

From Guilford to Rockdale, this EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Chenango County on July 29, 2011, touching down at 4:00 PM EDT and reaching 175 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
July 29, 2011
Touchdown
4:00 PM EDT (20:00 UTC)
Lifted
4:01 PM EDT (20:01 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.4 km)
Path width
175 yards (160 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000
County
Chenango County
Touchdown point
42.410, -75.440
Lift-off point
42.410, -75.435
Record number
1107291400-01

What the Weather Service recorded

As a cold front approached central New York, scattered showers and thunderstorms developed in the moist and unstable airmass ahead of the boundary. Some of the thunderstorms became severe, with two storms producing tornadoes and other damage from severe micro-burst winds.

A brief tornado touch down occurred on Phillips-Odell Road. Convergent damage in the area included a flipped shed, some minor tree damage and a paddle boat blown approximately 50 yards from a lake. An eyewitness indicated that a rotating funnel of strong winds passed over the area at the time of the damage. The tornado initially touched down west of Phillips-Odell Road, then dissipated in a field east of the road.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 18:40 UTC and running to 23:10 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:40 UTC23:10 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchBGM

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. 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

8.0 hours before the tornado, 135 km from the path. July 29, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Albany, NY at 12:00Z on 2011-07-29Temperature 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 -9, lifted condensation level 695 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 2011-07-29The 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 39 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 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
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
695 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
39 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
45 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

4.0 hours after it, 135 km from the path. July 30, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Albany, NY at 00:00Z on 2011-07-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 849 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 521 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 2011-07-30The 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 80 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 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
849 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1401 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
521 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
80 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
53 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
3.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Binghamton radar (KBGM), 51 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:58 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
20:00 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 E GuilfordChenango, NYDAMAGE ALONG PHILLIPS-ODELL ROAD BETWEEN GUILFORD AND MT. UPTON. HORSE SHED FLIPPED OVER... PADDLE BOAD BLOWN FROM POND... A FEW TREES DOWN.
20:00 UTCTORNADO1 Ene Guilford CenterChenango, NYINITIAL TOUCHDOWN JUST WEST OF PHILLIPS-ODELL ROAD WHERE A SHED WAS FLIPPED....A PADDLE BOAT WAS BLOWN 50 YARDS AND SOME MINOR TREE DAMAGE. THE TORNADO DISSIPATED AS IT CROSSED OVER PHILLIPS-ODELL ROAD INTO A FIELD. THE
21:20 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Nw BurlingtonOtsego, NYREPORTS OF NUMEROUS POLES AND WIRES DOWN AT 176 CHAPIN ROAD AREA... AND ALSO ROOF OFF OF BARN AND MULTIPLE TREES DOWN AT 766 FISH AND GAME ROAD
21:20 UTCTORNADO1 Sw Burlington FlatsOtsego, NYINITITAL TOUCHDOWN AT 706 FISH AND GAME ROAD. EF0 DAMAGE AT THIS LOCATION WITH WINDS OF 75 TO 80 MPH. A SECOND TOUCHDOWN OCCURRED AT A CREEK NEAR 162 CHAPIN ROAD. EF1 DAMAGE WAS SURVEYED IN THIS AREA... INCLUDING 10 TO 2

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

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of July 29, 2011

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 294:44 PM EDTEF1Wayne, PA0.7160$50,000
July 294:48 PM EDTEF0Wayne, PA0.6100$25,000
July 294:57 PM EDTEF1Orange, NY4.7100$50,000
July 295:20 PM EDTEF0Otsego, NY0.5120
July 297:28 PM MDTEF0Richland, MT11.450

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.