EF0 tornado, Wheatland Center to Industry, New York, July 29, 2020

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

July 29, 2020

Touchdown

6:53 PM EDT (22:53 UTC)

Lifted

6:57 PM EDT (22:57 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

4.2 miles (6.8 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

Crop damage

$1,000

County

Monroe County

Touchdown point

43.000, -77.820

Lift-off point

43.002, -77.744

Record number

2007291653-01

A leading surface boundary sagged from lower Michigan across the Southern Tier and Genesee Valley. Ample moisture pooling evidenced by precipitable water values in excess of 1.5 inches and modest shear generated instability that allowed for thunderstorms to vertically develop into a layer of dry air aloft. This provided the first set of wind damage producing thunderstorms. Subsequent to those, the Lake Ontario lake breeze forced additional thunderstorms that keyed on much higher low level helicity that moved southeastward from Genesee to Ontario counties. These storms developed notable rotation, resulting in one tornado in Monroe County.

A supercell thunderstorm developed over Genesee County and tracked|east-southeast from just south of the interchange of the New York|State Thruway and I-490. Scattered tree limb damage consistent|with straight line winds was found along the Oatka Creek upon|following the path of this storm into Monroe County starting|just east of Beulah Road and continuing through Mumford. Damage|became more concentrated upon crossing Wheatland Center Road and|entering Oatka Creek Park. A grassy field was laid down flat in|the opposite direction of the storm motion with tree damage to the|south end of the field indicating rotation with several damaged|trees having broken to the northeast. Farther east, a partially-|flattened corn field with two shallow-rooted uprooted trees along|its southern periphery was coupled with several broken trees along|a hiking path through Oatka Creek Park indicating opposing|directional damage. Scattered damage continued farther east from|Oatka Creek Park along Quaker Road south of Scottsville. A second|more concentrated area of damage was found near the intersection|of Quaker Road and Route 251. Several trees were downed along the|hillside west of Route 251, into Route 251, and on the property at|the southeast corner of Route 251 and Quaker Road. This included|at least three uprooted shallow-rooted trees and one approximately|five foot diameter broken and twisted hardwood tree along with|many downed smaller limbs that indicated a convergent damage path.||Due to the fact that the majority of the path of this storm was|along Oatka Creek and through the Oatka Creek Park and in an area|that is primarily rural, there was no damage to any structures.|Because of this, the National Weather Service use exclusively|tree damage indicators to reach a conclusion of an EF0 strength|and maximum wind speed of 75 mph.

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

3 minutes of warning. NWS BUF issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:50 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:18 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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:11 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 Buffalo radar (KBUF), 78 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:52 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 2020 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.