A small tornado touched down in Mattituck, Suffolk County, Wednesday afternoon, ending a 14-month twister drought in New York state.
Like many of New York’s tornadoes, the Long Island twister hurt no one and apparently did minimal damage. It was on the ground for only a moment and left a trail of broken trees about 40 yards wide, according to the National Weather Service. Its winds were estimated at 70 mph and it was categorized an EF-0, the least-potent of six grades.
It made for an ominous funnel-cloud image shared on Twitter Wednesday afternoon.
Until that twister manifested itself, the last tornado in New York occurred June 10 of last year. That was another small one that touched down in Farmington, Ontario County, doing some damage to farm buildings and vehicles and prompting at least one person to offer the familiar “freight train” description.
The Farmington EF-O twister was one of only two tornadoes verified in New York state last year. If the Mattituck tornado were to remain the only one this year, that two-year total of three tornadoes would be the lowest in New York state in a half-century.
In the modern era of storm detection, New York has averaged about nine confirmed tornadoes a year. All of them are listed and mapped at the Democrat and Chronicle’s NYDatabases site.
This year’s paucity of funnel clouds may be attributable to the relatively placid weather that much of New York has experienced this summer. “You could tie this together to the drought. There haven’t been many days with thunderstorms this year,” weather service meteorologist Jon Hitchcock said. Tornadoes generally are born amid the vigorous uplift of air that accompanies strong thunderstorms.
But tornadoes are also down nationwide this year. With the end of the most active tornado season in sight, the most recent count is 827 versus the long-term average of about 1,225 a year. Totals are particularly low in the Great Lakes and eastern states.
By: Steve Orr, Posted: 1:31 p.m. EDT August 11, 2016
Photo: By John Viise “Tornado on Long Island”
