EF0 tornado, Halcott Center, New York, August 3, 2018

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 3, 2018

Touchdown

12:24 PM EDT (16:24 UTC)

Lifted

12:32 PM EDT (16:32 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

1.9 miles (3.1 km)

Path width

67 yards (61 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Greene County

Touchdown point

42.216, -74.503

Lift-off point

42.229, -74.471

Record number

1808031024-01

A slow-moving cold front was located well to the west of the forecast area, with a deep southerly flow of moisture ahead of the front. Modest amounts of instability and low level shear developed ahead of the front. Precipitable water values were near to just above 2.00 inches. A line of convection produced a short-lived EF0 tornado in the Catskills during the early afternoon. A cluster of storms moved across the Capital District producing flash flooding within the city of Albany during the early afternoon. Another cluster of storms moved north up the Hudson Valley later in the afternoon producing wind damage and flash flooding in Dutchess and Greene counties. Finally, another round of heavy rain affected the Saratoga and upper Hudson Valley areas overnight Friday night producing minor flooding. Rainfall totals of 2 to 4 inches occurred in many areas from the mid-Hudson Valley through the Saratoga and upper Hudson Valley areas. Thousands of customers lost power as a result of these storms.

A tornado touched down at 12:24 PM EDT on August 3,|2018 over southwest Greene County in eastern New York and |continued 1.9 miles on the ground to the northeast for 8 minutes,|ending at 12:32 PM EDT. This weak tornado was approximately 200 |feet wide and contained estimated maximum winds of 75 mph. The |tornado was rated EF-0. Many trees were snapped and uprooted |along the path of this tornado. There was no observed structural |damage associated with this tornado.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:56 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.

Monticello (MSV), 63 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Albany radar (KENX), 53 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:24 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 2018 tornado in New YorkEvery tornado in New York since 1950Warnings in force in New York nowThe forecast where you are

1 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.