Tornadoes · United States · New York · 2013
EF1 tornado, Troupsburg, New York, July 27, 2013
This EF1 tornado ran 14.0 miles across Steuben County on July 27, 2013, touching down at 6:10 PM EDT and reaching 500 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $100,000 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 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
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
- EF1
- Date
- July 27, 2013
- Touchdown
- 6:10 PM EDT (22:10 UTC)
- Path length
- 14.0 miles (22.5 km)
- Path width
- 500 yards (457 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $100,000
- County
- Steuben County
- Touchdown point
- 42.050, -77.550
- Lift-off point
- 42.050, -77.550
- Record number
- 1307271610-01
What the Weather Service recorded
An upper level disturbance allowed thunderstorms to develop during the evening hours. A storm tracking northeast out of northern Pennsylvania resulted in an EF1 tornado in Steuben County New York.
EF1 tornado had a 14 mile path length and 500 yard path width with estimated winds of 100 MPH. Numerous trees and power poles were snapped along its length. A barn was completely destroyed one mile southeast of Troupsburg.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
What forecasters said that day
The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Binghamton, NY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jul 27, 3:26 PM EDT, 2 hours 44 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Jul 27, 3:26 PM EDT, 2 hours 44 minutes before
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Special weather statement, Jul 27, 4:48 PM EDT, 1 hour 22 minutes before
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</html>The surface observations
Wellsville Municipal (ELZ), 36 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Binghamton radar (KBGM), 130 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:11 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.
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 27, 2013
2 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.