EF1 tornado, Wayland, New York, September 19, 2022

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.

Rating

EF1

Date

September 19, 2022

Touchdown

7:33 PM EDT (23:33 UTC)

Lifted

7:38 PM EDT (23:38 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

1.9 miles (3.0 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$55,000

County

Steuben County

Touchdown point

42.575, -77.614

Lift-off point

42.561, -77.583

Record number

2209191733-01

10 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BGM, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 90 mph.

• Southern edge of visible damage
• Much cleaned up already. Large limbs down/snapped off.
• Large trunk snap. Very little damage surrounding either side.
• Alley of convergent uproots and large branch snaps. Also truck and trailer damaged (not present now).

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Warm, moist air created an unstable environment in the afternoon across Central New York. A sweeping cold front moved through the region during the evening, kicking off thunderstorms. There was enough shear present for a storm in Steuben County to develop a weak, short-lived tornado.

The National Weather Service in Binghamton NY confirmed with a storm|survey, that a tornado descended upon the Wayland area of Steuben County |New York from 733 to 738 PM Monday evening, September 19, 2002. During |the survey, convergent tree damage indicative of a tornado was found |starting around Buffalo Street just to the west-northwest of Wayland. |This included a few trunk snaps, several uprooted trees, and numerous |downed large branches. The defined narrow path of mostly tree damage |continued to the east-southeast, including through the south side of Wayland |itself, where winds are estimated to have reached to 90 mph before the |tornado dissipated about a half mile southeast of the center of Wayland. |This included a vehicle impaled by a large branch, an eyewitness account |of another vehicle being moved several inches sideways on the roadway, and |clean trunk snaps of two large softwood trees. Some roof damage occurred to |a few residences due to being struck by trees or large branches blown around |by the tornado. Other damage included collapsed fences and a crushed |backyard swimming pool.

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:42 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.

Dansville Municipal (DSV), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Buffalo radar (KBUF), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:34 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 2022 tornado in New YorkEvery tornado in New York since 1950Warnings in force in New York nowThe forecast where you are

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.