Tornadoes · United States · New York · 2013
EF0 tornado, Manitou Beach, New York, July 19, 2013
This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Monroe County on July 19, 2013, touching down at 7:31 PM EDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $35,000 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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 19, 2013
- Touchdown
- 7:31 PM EDT (23:31 UTC)
- Lifted
- 7:33 PM EDT (23:33 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 0.3 miles (0.5 km)
- Path width
- 10 yards (9 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $35,000
- County
- Monroe County
- Touchdown point
- 43.324, -77.716
- Lift-off point
- 43.321, -77.714
- Record number
- 1307191731-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A thunderstorm moving across Lake Ontario spawned a waterspout just north of Hilton, New York. The waterspout, caught on amateur video, came onshore and moved across a small section of Braddock Point before moving back out over water in Braddock Bay. Onshore, the tornado downed several large trees. A home on Ontario Boulevard and several automobiles were damaged by the falling trees. The overall path length was approximated at less than a mile however the exact location of formation and dissipation over the water was unknown. Over land, the tornado path length was about a quarter of a mile, width was about ten yards, and it was ranked an EF0. Winds were estimated at 65 mph.
A waterspout over Lake Ontario briefly crossed a small section of Braddock Point before moving back out over the waters of Braddock Bay.
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) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16:00 UTC | 23:33 UTC | Heat Advisory | BUF |
| 23:52 UTC | 04:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | BUF |
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. The outlook in force was issued at 19:52 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.
Buffalo Intl Airport, NY (KBUF), 12:00Z
11.5 hours before the tornado, 91 km from the path. July 19, 2013.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2621 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -19 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1655 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 799 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 21 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 23 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 127 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 142 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.3 K/km
Buffalo Intl Airport, NY (KBUF), 00:00Z
0.5 hours after it, 91 km from the path. July 20, 2013.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1370 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -36 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2254 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1402 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 16 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 22 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 124 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 117 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.6 K/km
The surface observations
Rochester/Monroe Co (ROC), 23 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:54 UTC | 91 | 67 | 250° 16 kt | 31 | 1006.8 | |
| 22:54 UTC | 90 | 66 | 260° 14 kt | 26 | 1007.1 | |
| 23:54 UTC | 78 | 62 | 340° 23 kt | 37 | 1010.5 | |
| 00:15 UTC | 73.4 | 64.4 | 310° 12 kt | 25 | 1009.8 | -RA |
| 00:18 UTC | 73.4 | 64.4 | 320° 7 kt | 24 | 1009.8 | -RA |
| 00:54 UTC | 74 | 67 | 290° 10 kt | 19 | 1008.5 | |
| 01:15 UTC | 73.4 | 66.2 | 260° 10 kt | 17 | 1008.5 | |
| 01:24 UTC | 73.4 | 66.2 | 240° 12 kt | 1009.1 | -TSRA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Buffalo radar (KBUF), 93 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:33 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:55 UTC | TSTM WND GST 70 | 2 N Sodus | Wayne, NY | WIND GUST ESTIMATED AT 70 MPH AND TREES DOWN. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2013 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 19, 2013
3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.