Tornadoes · United States · New York · 2024

EF1 tornado, Lincklaen to Otselic, New York, July 15, 2024

From Lincklaen to Otselic, this EF1 tornado ran 8.7 miles across Chenango County on July 15, 2024, touching down at 6:54 PM EDT and reaching 250 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $120,000 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 15, 2024
Touchdown
6:54 PM EDT (22:54 UTC)
Lifted
7:02 PM EDT (23:02 UTC)
On the ground
8 minutes
Path length
8.7 miles (14.0 km)
Path width
250 yards (229 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$120,000
County
Chenango County
Touchdown point
42.655, -75.837
Lift-off point
42.726, -75.717
Record number
2407151654-01

The damage survey

20 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 110 mph.

  • Wide corridor with many dozens of large softwood trunksnaps and uproots
  • Dozens of large snaps and uproots. Chaotic directions varying from east to north.
  • Numerous hardwood snaps and uproots
  • Edge of large branches and small trunks or upry

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

What the Weather Service recorded

A mesoscale convective system (MCS) and an upper-level wave moved through the region triggering widespread showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon and evening hours. These features moved into a high instability environment with sufficient shear in place and plenty of moisture, resulting in a ripe environment for a severe weather outbreak. Damaging wind gusts were the main concern though some storms also had tornadoes. Widespread tree and wire damage occurred across Central New York with two microbursts and two tornadoes surveyed making it one of the most active days of the month.

A line of severe thunderstorms quickly surged through in late afternoon with a bow echo radar signature to produce damaging winds for much of the area, but a higher end embedded EF1 tornado managed to spin up at a kink in the line where strong rotation was indicated on radar. The tornado took a meandering path through rugged terrain, with discontinuous damage at times from apparent skipping. The first tornadic damage began around Upham Road near Lane Hill in Lincklaen State Forest, and |crossed Hyer and Neal Roads as well. The tornado intensified to higher end EF1 when it reached an exposed ridge along Joe Road, with hundreds of uprooted and snapped large softwood trees in a swath over 200 yards wide. Tree snaps and uproots continued across County Road 13 and then somewhat intensified on the exposed higher elevation of Ridge Road while climbing into Bucks Brook State Forest, before finally dropping into the Otselic Valley to cause additional trunk snaps and uproots. A barn was partially|collapsed, with roof displaced, in Otselic Center. Other structures had minor roofing or window damage from Otselic Center, up Highway 26, to the tornado path ending along Route 80 in Otselic itself where a carport was also lofted. Other pockets of damage such as in Crumb Hill as well as towards South Otselic were more consistent with downbursts from the severe line of thunderstorms.

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

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Binghamton, NY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jul 15, 3:55 PM EDT, 2 hours 59 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 15, 3:55 PM EDT, 2 hours 59 minutes before
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Hazardous weather outlook, Jul 15, 5:37 PM EDT, 1 hour 17 minutes before
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In the hours before

Local storm report, Jul 15, 6:17 PM EDT, 37 minutes before
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Local storm report, Jul 15, 6:19 PM EDT, 35 minutes before
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Local storm report, Jul 15, 6:21 PM EDT, 33 minutes before
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Local storm report, Jul 15, 6:30 PM EDT, 24 minutes before
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Local storm report, Jul 15, 6:31 PM EDT, 23 minutes before
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Local storm report, Jul 15, 6:46 PM EDT, 8 minutes before
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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

10.9 hours before the tornado, 159 km from the path. July 15, 2024.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Albany, NY at 12:00Z on 2024-07-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 322 joules per kilogram, CIN -69, lifted condensation level 1086 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 12:00Z on 2024-07-15The 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 66 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 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
322 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-69 J/kg
Surface CAPE
471 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1086 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
66 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
106 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
0.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Hamilton (VGC), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Binghamton radar (KBGM), 57 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:56 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2024 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 15, 2024

61 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 157:14 AM CDTEF0Chippewa, MN2.225
July 153:50 PM EDTEF0Genesee, NY0.875
July 154:48 PM EDTEF0Ontario, NY0.875
July 156:25 PM EDTEF0Cortland, NY7.5175$37,000
July 155:37 PM CDTEF1Polk, IA6.9300$500,000
July 156:14 PM CDTEF1Grant, WI0.330$35,000
July 156:18 PM CDTEF0Jones, IA1.550
July 156:40 PM CDTEF1Jo Daviess, IL29.8100
July 156:48 PM CDTEF1Jo Daviess, IL8.150
July 156:50 PM CDTEF2Jo Daviess, IL15.4150
July 157:02 PM CDTEF0Muscatine, IA to IL3.050
July 157:17 PM CDTEF1Rock Island, IL24.7100
July 157:19 PM CDTEF1Scott, IA to IL8.0100
July 157:26 PM CDTUnratedStephenson, IL1.010
July 157:26 PM CDTEF0Rock, WI1.250
July 157:44 PM CDTEF0Ogle, IL5.3200
July 157:58 PM CDTEF0Ogle, IL1.7150
July 157:58 PM CDTEF0Winnebago, IL1.2100
July 158:01 PM CDTEF0Winnebago, IL0.225
July 158:02 PM CDTEF1Henry, IL5.2200$100,000
July 158:05 PM CDTEF0Ogle, IL2.2150
July 158:07 PM CDTEF1Knox, IL1.3150
July 158:07 PM CDTEF1Henry, IL1.750$50,000
July 158:15 PM CDTEF0Peoria, IL4.380
July 158:21 PM CDTEF1Peoria, IL2.4150
July 158:25 PM CDTEF0Peoria, IL2.5100
July 158:36 PM CDTEF1Woodford, IL0.4100
July 158:38 PM CDTEF0Woodford, IL1.480
July 158:38 PM CDTUnratedDeKalb, IL1.850
July 158:39 PM CDTEF1Woodford, IL1.2100
July 158:39 PM CDTEF1Tazewell, IL12.2100
July 158:49 PM CDTEF1Kane, IL8.4300
July 158:51 PM CDTUnratedTazewell, IL0.980
July 158:52 PM CDTEF0Kane, IL10.1250
July 158:55 PM CDTEF1Kendall, IL19.2200
July 158:55 PM CDTEF0Woodford, IL3.830
July 159:06 PM CDTEF1Kendall, IL19.52502
July 159:09 PM CDTEF2Grundy, IL34.63252
July 159:10 PM CDTEF0Kendall, IL17.0300
July 159:23 PM CDTEF0DuPage, IL3.1150
July 159:29 PM CDTEF0DuPage, IL0.850
July 159:33 PM CDTEF0Will, IL2.9300
July 159:34 PM CDTEF0DuPage, IL4.1250
July 159:35 PM CDTEF0Kankakee, IL12.3275
July 159:36 PM CDTEF0Cook, IL1.2175
July 159:37 PM CDTEF1Cook, IL2.175
July 159:41 PM CDTEF0Will, IL6.4100
July 159:41 PM CDTEF0Cook, IL5.7300
July 159:43 PM CDTEF1Cook, IL5.5250
July 159:43 PM CDTEF0Cook, IL0.485
July 159:45 PM CDTEF0Cook, IL0.4125
July 159:47 PM CDTEF1Cook, IL3.2150
July 159:47 PM CDTEF1Cook, IL3.1400
July 159:50 PM CDTEF0Cook, IL1.4150
July 159:51 PM CDTEF1Kankakee, IL2.6100
July 159:52 PM CDTEF1Lake, IL to IN29.1300
July 159:58 PM CDTEF0Lake, IN2.4100
July 1510:02 PM CDTEF0Lake, IN16.4100
July 1510:32 PM CDTEF1LaPorte, IN3.275$100,000
July 1512:09 AM EDTEF0Marshall, IN0.775$20,000

All 62 of them

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.