Home / New York / Cattaraugus

EF1 tornado in Cattaraugus County, New York

Tornado March 31, 2026 · Cattaraugus County, New York

EF1

Rating

1.4 mi

Path length

150 yd

Path width

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

The National Weather Service in Buffalo investigated storm-related

damage from a rotating thunderstorm that affected the area southeast

of Machias in Cattaraugus County on March 31st. The National Weather

Service storm survey team investigated the damage in the area and confirmed damage consistent with an EF-1 tornado with estimated peak winds of 107 mph. The tornado had a path length of 1.4 miles, and a maximum width of 150 yards.

The wider storm

On March 31st, severe thunderstorms moved across Lake Erie and into portions of southwestern New York as a potent shortwave trough crossed the area with a stationary front draped across the south shore of Lake Ontario and lake breeze boundaries found across the area. Shear values of 40+ knots and instability values of around 1,000 J/kg at the time the trough crossed the area combined for a favorable setup for severe thunderstorms. The thunderstorms caused a tornado, damaging winds, flash flooding and significant hail up to 1.5 inches in diameter.

Began near Bird (42.3960, -78.5470).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1318937. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.