Tornadoes · United States · New York · 2016

EF0 tornado, Mattituck, New York, August 10, 2016

This EF0 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Suffolk County on August 10, 2016, touching down at 4:18 PM EDT and reaching 40 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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
August 10, 2016
Touchdown
4:18 PM EDT (20:18 UTC)
Lifted
4:21 PM EDT (20:21 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
0.4 miles (0.6 km)
Path width
40 yards (37 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Suffolk County
Touchdown point
40.998, -72.516
Lift-off point
40.993, -72.512
Record number
1608101418-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A trough of low pressure helped trigger isolated severe storms, which impacted Suffolk County. This storm produced a tornado.

The National Weather Service in New York, NY confirmed a weak tornado near Mattituck in Suffolk County, New York on August 10, 2016.||Based on a survey conducted by an NWS Meteorologist, and information from NWS doppler weather radar data, emergency management, and trained Skywarn|spotters, the National Weather Service confirmed a weak EF0|tornado occurred in Mattituck, caused by a severe thunderstorm moving over the area. ||Most wind damage was concentrated between Main Road and New Suffolk Avenue close to the corridor from Cardinal Drive southeast to Blossom Bend, where the tornado lifted before reaching New Suffolk Avenue. Wind damage was confined mainly to trees, where several trees were snapped in half.||Based on this limited damage, this tornado is classified as an EF-0 with wind gusts up to 70 mph.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:36 UTC22:30 UTCFlood AdvisoryOKX
19:56 UTC23:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningOKX
20:21 UTC20:45 UTCTornado WarningOKX
20:44 UTC21:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOKX
22:11 UTC00:15 UTCFlood AdvisoryOKX

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:54 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.

Brookhaven, NY (KOKX), 12:00Z

8.3 hours before the tornado, 33 km from the path. August 10, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Brookhaven, NY at 12:00Z on 2016-08-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 526 joules per kilogram, CIN -12, lifted condensation level 601 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Brookhaven, NY at 12:00Z on 2016-08-10The 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 163 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 25 knots.1939Sfc1 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
526 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-12 J/kg
Surface CAPE
57 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
601 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
163 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
200 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Brookhaven, NY (KOKX), 00:00Z

3.7 hours after it, 33 km from the path. August 11, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Brookhaven, NY at 00:00Z on 2016-08-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2163 joules per kilogram, CIN -10, lifted condensation level 557 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Brookhaven, NY at 00:00Z on 2016-08-11The 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 70 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 17 knots.1939Sfc1 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
2163 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-10 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1938 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
557 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
70 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
137 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Brookhaven radar (KOKX), 33 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:20 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
18:00 UTCLIGHTNINGGreenportSuffolk, NYHOUSE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING ON BAILEY AVENUE BETWEEN KNAPP PLACE AND CHAMPLIN PLACE RESULTING IN A FIRE.
20:00 UTCLIGHTNINGGreenportSuffolk, NYHOUSE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING ON BAILEY AVENUE BETWEEN KNAPP PLACE AND CHAMPLIN PLACE RESULTING IN A FIRE.
20:05 UTCLIGHTNINGSoutholdSuffolk, NYHOUSE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING ON WELLS ROAD RESULTING IN A FIRE.
20:08 UTCTSTM WND DMGSoutholdSuffolk, NYTREES AND WIRES DOWN BLOCKING LIGHTHOUSE ROAD NEAR SOUNDVIEW AVENUE.
20:17 UTCTSTM WND DMGMattituckSuffolk, NYTREES DOWN AT THE INTERSECTION OF MILL LANE AND ROUTE 25.
20:20 UTCFLASH FLOODGreenportSuffolk, NYFRONT STREET CLOSED DUE TO FLOODING NEAR THE INTERSECTION WITH MAIN STREET.
20:25 UTCTSTM WND DMGMattituckSuffolk, NYSEVERAL TREES DOWN AT THE INTERSECTION OF SUNSET AVENUE AND 25A.
20:25 UTCTORNADO1 Sse WatervilleSuffolk, NYEF0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN AN AREA SOUTH OF ROUTE 25 AND NORTH OF NEW SUFFOLK AVENUE...EAST OF SUNSET AVENUE AND WEST OF BLOSSOM BEND.
20:30 UTCLIGHTNINGSag HarborSuffolk, NYHOUSE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING ON POPLAR STREET BETWEEN BERNARD PLACE AND NOYAC ROAD RESULTING IN A FIRE.
20:40 UTCFLASH FLOODCutchogueSuffolk, NYROUTE 25 AND STERLING LANE BY THE KING KULLEN CLOSED DUE TO FLOODING.
20:40 UTCFLASH FLOODSoutholdSuffolk, NYBAYVIEW ROAD CLOSED DUE TO FLOODING BETWEEN OAKWOOD DRIVE AND GOOSE CREEK LANE.
20:45 UTCLIGHTNINGSag HarborSuffolk, NYHOUSE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING ON UNION STREET BETWEEN MADISON STREET AND DIVISION STREET RESULTING IN A FIRE.
21:00 UTCLIGHTNINGAmagansettSuffolk, NYHOUSE ON THE CORNER OF MONTAUK HIGHWAY AND ATLANTIC AVENUE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING RESULTING IN A FIRE.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2016 tornado in New YorkEvery tornado in New York since 1950Warnings in force in New York nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 10, 2016

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 101:29 PM EDTEF0South Central Connecticut Planning Region, CT2.750$15,000

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.