EF0 tornado, Balmville, New York, May 15, 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

May 15, 2018

Touchdown

4:16 PM EDT (20:16 UTC)

Lifted

4:17 PM EDT (20:17 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.6 miles (1.0 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Orange County

Touchdown point

41.536, -74.012

Lift-off point

41.536, -74.000

Record number

1805151416-01

An approaching cold front triggered numerous severe thunderstorms over southeastern New York. These storms produced 3 tornadoes in the Lower Hudson Valley, as well as microbursts and macroburts.

Based on a National Weather Service damage survey done in|conjunction with the Newburgh Fire Department, it has been |determined that an EF0 tornado went through the Balmville |neighborhood of Newburgh. The tornado originated near Albany Post |Road, to the south of the intersection with Bennet Road. A tree fell on a moving car on Albany Post Rd, killing the woman inside. The |tornado lifted near the Hudson River behind the house at 56 Susan |Drive. The tornado sheared off trees around half way to the |ground, peeled the bark off of one tree, and caused localized |convergence of uprooted trees. It also caused leaves to be |plastered on three sides of houses in the Susan Drive area. Based |on this, the tornado was classified as an EF0 tornado with an |estimated maximum wind speed of around 75 mph.

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

19 minutes of warning. NWS OKX issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:57 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 17:46 UTC and running to 21:37 UTC.

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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.05 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 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.

The Albany radar (KENX), 117 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:16 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

11 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.