EF1 tornado, Chenango County, New York, July 21, 2026

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, as surveyed

EF1, preliminary

Date

July 21, 2026

Touchdown

1:45 PM EDT (17:45 UTC)

Lifted

1:52 PM EDT (17:52 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

4.6 miles (7.5 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Chenango County

Touchdown point

42.269, -75.725

Lift-off point

42.279, -75.637

Highest wind the damage implies

90 mph

Surveyed by

NWS BGM

Survey last edited

July 24, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

A second confirmed EF1 tornado occurred within a Quasi-Linear Convective System (QLCS) at 145 PM EDT on Tuesday July 21. Though this line caused scattered damage in general, a tornadic convergent pattern was evident starting near the Shafer Wylie Horton Road intersection. It nearly paralleled Wylie Horton Road for a few miles, and then caused its heaviest damage to a farm just west of Bowbell Road. A haybarn lost its roof and most of its walls, with material strewn across the street and wrapped around a telephone pole. A roof section was lofted at least 100 yards. Roof material from other outbuildings, and the top of a silo, were removed. A section of cinder block wall collapsed from tornadic inflow. The tornado also uprooted a large section of trees just east of Bowbell Road, while departing to mainly south of Wylie Horton Road. The tornado weakened before crossing Highway 235, with the path becoming discontinuous. The tornado ended around 152 PM EDT.

Written by NWS BGM in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

32 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 95 mph.

• Uprooted tree, snapped small tree.
• Snapped upper portion of small aspen like tree
• Distant, small snap, approximate end point.
• Roof taken off of Haybarn, walls fallen over. Roofing material wrapped around telephone pole.

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

5 minutes of warning. NWS BGM issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:40 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:15 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:18 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.

Binghamton/Broome (BGM), 26 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Binghamton radar (KBGM), 26 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:47 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 2026 tornado in New YorkEvery tornado in New York since 1950Warnings in force in New York nowThe forecast where you are

35 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.