EF1 Tornado — Chenango, New York

2024-07-15 · near Lincklaen, Chenango, New York

Event narrative

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.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (42.6549, -75.8374)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1203127. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.