F3 Tornado — Otsego, New York

1998-05-31 · near Laurens, Otsego, New York

Event narrative

A supercell thunderstorm became tornadic as it crossed southern portions of the county around 6:30 pm EDT. The storm cut nearly a 5 mile path from Laurens eastward into Milford township. This twister incurred major damage to heavily forested areas. Thousands of trees were laid out with the width of damage varying up to nearly a half mile in spots. Trees were blown over in a chaotic and almost circular pattern as viewed from aerial damage surveys. Several homes within the path of the twister also sustained heavy damage. In the town of Laurens, a well built home was nearly destroyed with only the back and a portion of the side wall left in tact. Many local roads were closed for up to 3 days as fallen trees made them completely impassable. This included portions of routes 12 and 44. The cell appeared to weaken as it approached Interstate 88 just east of Milford. County emergency officials estimated damage totals in excess of three quarters of a million dollars from this twister. Most of it stemmed from deforestation, repair of utility poles, and other repairs to homes and public structures. Three minor injuries were sustained from falling tree limbs and flying debris.

Wider weather episode

An intensifying storm system moved across upstate New York and into southern Quebec early in the morning on the 31st. This system dragged a warm front northeastward across central New York. A southerly flow of warm, moist, and unstable air quickly developed. This set the stage for severe weather that afternoon and evening as a cold front and strong upper air disturbance approached. From early in the afternoon until the evening hours, central New York was under siege from severe thunderstorms, including several tornadic supercells. In all, six separate tornadoes touched down on this day in central New York. The most devastating twister cut a discontinuous sixty plus mile track from southeastern Tioga county across southern Broome county and into Delaware county where it finally lifted back into the cloud base. This tornado alone damaged or destroyed more than 30 homes and injured nearly 20 people. Very fortunately, no fatalities occurred. Another violent tornado ripped through southern sections of Otsego county between Laurens and Milford. Thousands of trees were snapped off or uprooted with large sections of forest completely taken out. Several residences were leveled and many roads were impassable for days due to the fallen debris. The damage toll from this day's tornadoes ran into the millions. Several strong bow echo complexes also affected central New York. From southern Chenango county through the lower half of Otsego county, one such storm took out hundreds of trees and inflicted considerable structural damage in and around Oneonta. One man was killed in Oneonta when hit by a falling tree limb. Throughout Onondaga county, wind gusts estimated at 90 to 100 mph caused widespread damage early in the evening between 6:00 and 6:30 pm EDT. Two large transmission towers near Nedrow were toppled from the winds and many buildings had blown out windows and/or roof damage. Hail as large as 3 to 4 inches in diameter accompanied some of the tornadic supercells across New York's southern tier; smashing windows, severely denting cars, and causing crop losses. New York State Electric and Gas Company estimated that hundreds of thousands of customers were without power during the height of the storms late that afternoon and evening. Some of the more remote locations did not have power restored for the better part of a week.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (42.5300, -75.1000)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5650816. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.