EF0 tornado, East Islip to North Bellport, New York, November 13, 2021

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

November 13, 2021

Touchdown

3:20 PM EST (20:20 UTC)

Lifted

3:22 PM EST (20:22 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

County

Suffolk County

Touchdown point

40.718, -73.197

Lift-off point

40.723, -73.190

Record number

2111131420-01

A strong and slow moving frontal boundary, along with a potent mid level disturbance triggered strong to severe thunderstorms which impacted Southeastern New York. Six tornadoes also touched down across Long Island with one in Nassau County and five across Suffolk County.

Survey team confirmed an EF0 tornado in East Islip, NY, a narrow tornado of 50 yard width likely touched down at the southwestern end of Hollins Lane, and then continued northeast over Brushwood Court, Bayview Avenue, and Josephine Lane, and then finally over Kay Court, before lifting over the John F. Kennedy Elementary School sport fields. A few dozen large oak, maple, and pine trees were uprooted and laying in east or northeast direction. Several trees were also snapped at the trunk or had large branches sheared off along this path. In addition, minor roof and siding damage was observed for several houses, as well as leaf splater on south and east sides of several houses. This tornadic circulation was likely on the northwest side of a 400 yd. swath of 65 to 75 mph west to southwest straight line winds causing isolated large trees to be uprooted and several large limbs broken.||As mentioned, the tornado likely lifted over the John F. Kennedy Elementary School sport fields, becoming a funnel cloud. This funnel cloud may have briefly touched down as a weak tornado in the Frog Lane and Jade Street area of Oakdale, resulting in a very large, but partially rotted oak tree to topple onto and destroy a home. The funnel cloud was videotaped by the public, looking southwest from the Old Navy Department store on Johnson Avenue (just north of Sunrise Highway), but no further damage was noted with this storm.||Based on radar velocity signatures and damage orientation in relation to the general northeast motion of the parent storm, this was determined to be tornado damage, with degree of damage indicating EF0 damage.

A National Weather Service Storm Survey team in coordination with|Suffolk County Fire and Rescue and Emergency Services confirmed an EF0 |Tornado in North Bellport, NY. A narrow tornado likely touched down in a forest |of pine trees to the south of Sunrise Highway, between Bellport Avenue and Martha Avenue Ballpark leaving a 35 yard northward tracking path of sheared tree limbs and snapped tree trunks towards Sunrise Highway.||Thereafter the tornado likely tracked northeast across Sunrise Highway heading towards The Brookhaven Landfill. In this process it flattened the Sunrise Highway Exit 56 sign, on the westbound side of Sunrise Highway just to the east of the station road off ramp. This approximate location corresponds to a public video showing a condensation funnel and considerable tree debris moving northeast across Sunrise Highway. ||The tornado likely tracked or skipped northeast across the landfill, before causing extensive roof damage and blowing out the north facing garage doors of the Brookhaven Recycling Center. The south side of the recycling center is always wide open, likely allowing for south to southwest winds around the tornadic circulation to|enter the building and cause the extensive roof and garage damage. This Recycling Center is located on the Northeast side of the landfill, which was the end of the visible tornadic path.||Based on radar velocity signatures and damage orientation in relation to the general northeast motion of the parent storm, the damage survey above is determined to be EF0 tornadic damage with winds of 70 to 85 mph.

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

27 minutes of warning. NWS OKX issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:53 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 17:27 UTC and running to 22:19 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:48 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 Brookhaven radar (KOKX), 32 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:19 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 2021 tornado in New YorkEvery tornado in New York since 1950Warnings in force in New York nowThe forecast where you are

10 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.