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EF1 tornado in Chemung County, New York

Tornado July 26, 2012 · Chemung County, New York

EF1
Rating
8.8 mi
Path length
600 yd
Path width
$10.0M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 600 yards (0.34 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

A tornado touched down west of Elmira near Miracle Lane off of Route 352. It traveled through west Elmira and into downtown Elmira along Church Street. It fell hundreds of trees. Some trees smashed cars, homes, and porches. It was amazing no one was injured or killed. The damage path widened while in downtown Elmira between Route 14 and Route 17. Then the tornado turned towards the southeast and traveled in a path near Jerusalem Hill Road. It lifted near the intersection of Jerusalem Hill Road and Monkey Run Road.

The wider storm

On the afternoon of July 26th, a significant severe weather event impacted portions of the Binghamton, NY forecast area. By the late morning/early afternoon, a warm front had lifted north through the region placing much of the Binghamton forecast area in a moderately unstable airmass. Aloft, multiple approaching upper-level shortwave troughs approached the region from the central Great Lakes during the early afternoon hours which provided the initial forcing for thunderstorm development. Also, a punch of mid-level dry air helped create mid-level convective instability along with a favorable setup for strong damaging winds.

Began near Hendy Creek (42.0950, -76.9210).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

4 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 400671. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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