Tornadoes · United States · New York · 2021

EF1 tornado, Westernville to Frenchville, New York, July 8, 2021

From Westernville to Frenchville, this EF1 tornado ran 2.2 miles across Oneida County on July 8, 2021, touching down at 7:30 PM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $108,000 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 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

    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
EF1
Date
July 8, 2021
Touchdown
7:30 PM EDT (23:30 UTC)
Lifted
7:36 PM EDT (23:36 UTC)
On the ground
6 minutes
Path length
2.2 miles (3.5 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$108,000
Crop damage
$50,000
County
Oneida County
Touchdown point
43.300, -75.390
Lift-off point
43.330, -75.370
Record number
2107081730-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Warm, humid conditions supported a quickly destabilizing atmosphere during the afternoon. A line of thunderstorms developed and passed through Central New York. Damaging winds were associated with the northern portion of the line of storms. A tornado also developed in Oneida County, tearing off roofs on several houses in Westernville as well as damaging a barn and nearby crops.

A tornado touched down in the Woods Valley Ski Area and then |moved northeast into downtown Westernville. The tornado caused |considerable damage along Main street. Several roofs were blown |off houses and numerous trees were uprooted and snapped. The |tornado continued to move northeast crossing the Mohawk River|and paralled east of River Road, leading to crop damage and a |roof torn off of a barn before lifting.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:30 UTC00:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBGM
00:42 UTC03:45 UTCFlood AdvisoryBGM
03:37 UTC09:15 UTCFlood WarningBGM

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:44 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.

Albany, NY (KALY), 12:00Z

11.5 hours before the tornado, 144 km from the path. July 8, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Albany, NY at 12:00Z on 2021-07-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -73273, lifted condensation level 578 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Albany, NY at 12:00Z on 2021-07-08The 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 56 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 knots.193958Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-73273 J/kg
Surface CAPE
12 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
578 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
56 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
126 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Albany, NY (KALY), 00:00Z

0.5 hours after it, 144 km from the path. July 9, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Albany, NY at 00:00Z on 2021-07-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 73 joules per kilogram, CIN -100, lifted condensation level 663 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, Albany, NY at 00:00Z on 2021-07-09The 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 252 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 knots.193958Sfc1 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
73 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-100 J/kg
Surface CAPE
160 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
663 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
252 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
273 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Ft Drum radar (KTYX), 55 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:29 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
23:30 UTCTORNADO1 S WesternvilleOneida, NYA TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN THE WOODS VALLEY SKI AREA IN WESTERNVILLE, NY. IT TRAVELLED NORTHEASTWARD TO RIVER ROAD BEFORE LIFTING.
23:33 UTCTSTM WND DMGWesternvilleOneida, NYMULTIPLE REPORTS OF TREES, A POLE AND WIRES DOWN. ONE ON A HOUSE, ANOTHER ON A CAR.
23:33 UTCTSTM WND DMGWesternvilleOneida, NYROOF OFF HOUSE. TIME IS RADAR ESTIMATED.
23:45 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 Sw Alder CreekOneida, NYTREES DOWN ON WIRES.
23:45 UTCTSTM WND DMGAlder CreekOneida, NYSEVERAL TREES DOWN.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 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 8, 2021

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 82:36 AM EDTEF1Charleston, SC0.8150
July 84:12 AM EDTEF0Clarendon, SC1.540
July 82:53 PM EDTUnratedHyde, NC12.530
July 83:45 PM EDTEF0Hertford, NC2.840$5,000
July 87:04 PM EDTEF0City of Suffolk, VA1.450$5,000
July 87:16 PM EDTEF0City of Suffolk, VA0.940$10,000
July 87:31 PM EDTEF0Isle of Wight, VA3.050$10,000
July 88:01 PM EDTEF0Camden, NC1.560$20,000

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.