EF0 tornado, Ava, New York, September 4, 2025

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

September 4, 2025

Touchdown

5:57 PM EDT (21:57 UTC)

Lifted

6:05 PM EDT (22:05 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

3.0 miles (4.8 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$13,000

County

Oneida County

Touchdown point

43.407, -75.499

Lift-off point

43.424, -75.445

Record number

2509041557-01

6 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BGM, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 76 mph.

• Tree partially cleaned up, direction estimated
• Pools of water in root well, estimated lower end
• Convergent tree fall towards previous tree group

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

A cold front moving across the area triggered scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon and evening. With plenty of wind shear in place, the environment was favorable enough for a few storms embedded within a line to produce strong, damaging wind gusts across north-central New York. It was determined that an EF0 tornado had spun up near Ava in Northern Oneida County.

A thunderstorm moved through far Northern Oneida County that had broad rotation tighten up as it approached Ava. A weak tornado touched down and traveled about 3 miles and was on the ground for approximately 8 minutes. The first area of damage that was surveyed was off of Vary Road west of Ava with a few trees down as well as scattered tree debris that fell in a convergent pattern. The next stop was in the town of Ava where there was damage that indicated a maximum of 80 mph winds. A chicken coop was lofted and set down several yards from its original location as well as a large tree that fell on a pig pen. Once again trees on the south side of the property fell in a convergent pattern. The last location that had any damage was at a farm house a |little over a mile to the east of Ava on Flint Town Road where a large, partly rotten tree fell on the house. Minor damage occurred to the property from the tree falling on it but no visible wind damage was seen. With the tree being weak and no other significant tree damage in the vicinity and no more visible damage to the east, this was determined to be roughly the end of the tornado's path.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 19:59 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 Ft Drum radar (KTYX), 41 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:56 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.

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 2025 tornado in New YorkEvery tornado in New York since 1950Warnings in force in New York nowThe forecast where you are

4 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.