Storm Events Database

Storm Events Database

Event Details:

Event Tornado
-- Scale F1
-- Length .3 Miles
-- Width 100 Yards
State NEW YORK
County/Area CHENANGO
WFO BGM
Report Source EMERGENCY MANAGER
NCEI Data Source PDC
Begin Date 1998-06-02 18:53 EST
Begin Lat/Lon 42.58/-75.85
End Date 1998-06-02 18:57 EST
End Location PITCHER
End Lat/Lon 42.58/-75.85
Deaths Direct/Indirect 0/0 (fatality details below, when available...)
Injuries Direct/Indirect 0/0
Property Damage 250K
Crop Damage
Episode Narrative For the second time in three days, a significant severe weather event including tornadoes affected central New York. The primary focusing mechanisms were a strong mid level shortwave trough and surface cold front that approached from the west late in the day and during the evening. As these features encountered an unstable and increasingly moist environment, thunderstorms developed and quickly became severe. Strongly veering winds that increased with height contributed substantially to the development of tornadic supercells.

Two tornadoes touched down in central New York in the early evening on the 2nd. Both appeared to be associated with the same cell. The first tornado occurred in extreme eastern Cortland county in the town of Cincinnatus. After the twister's brief initial touchdown, it lifted back into the cloud base for several minutes before descending once again in western Chenango county in the town of Pitcher. Both tornadoes were rated as F1 intensity with fairly narrow damage paths of a quarter mile or less in length and 100 yards or less in width. Very fortunately, structural damage was kept to a minimum as only two houses sustained appreciable damage. Also, there were no injuries directly tied to the tornadoes as both homes were unoccupied and sparsely populated areas were affected. However, damage estimates from Foresty Department personnel still approached a half million dollars as hundreds of trees were cut down.

Elsewhere across central New York, damage was fairly widespread from a combination of intense squall line and bow echo complexes as well as isolated supercells. One such supercell cut a lengthy path of wind damage over the Finger Lakes region early in the evening from western Yates county all the way through southern Cayuga county. Hail as large as golf balls was also observed with these storms. The same thunderstorm complex that became tornadic over portions of Cortland and Chenango counties was also responsible for quite a bit of damage from straight line winds. Swaths of downed trees and power lines from downburst type winds were interspersed with tornadic damage from Homer in western Cortland county to Norwich in northern Chenango county. Across the southern tier counties including the western Catskills, severe thunderstorms were more widely separated as a general rule. Yet, there were two areas of concentrated activity. One was from Steuben county eastward through the Elmira/Corning area into Tioga county. Golf ball sized hail and wind gusts estimated at near 80 mph accompanied these storms. A bow echo complex affected an area from Oneonta in southern Otsego county into northern Delaware county with widespread wind damage just after nightfall.

By late in the evening, remaining severe thunderstorms had pushed either into the eastern Catskills or northern Pennsylvania as a cold front swept through much of central New York.
Event Narrative The severe cell that had become tornadic just across the county line in eastern Cortland county earlier in the evening remained a tornadic supercell after entering Chenango county. Aerial damage surveys indicate that the tornado was near ground level for a few minutes in the town of Pitcher.

A swath of forest was heavily damaged for about a quarter of a mile. Most trees were snapped or sheared off near canopy level. A few trees were completely uprooted or twisted off the ground. Fortunately, no homes were in this vicinity. Foresty Department personnel estimate that hundreds of trees were damaged with fiscal estimates near a quarter of a million dollars.


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Event Map:

Note: The tornado track is approximate based on the beginning (B) and ending (E) locations. The actual tornado path may differ from a straight line.
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Measure
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All events for this episode:

Location County/Zone St. Date Time T.Z. Type Mag Dth Inj PrD CrD
Totals: 0 0 665.00K 0.00K
PENN YAN YATES CO. NY 06/02/1998 17:05 EST Thunderstorm Wind 0 0 10.00K 0.00K
SHELDRAKE SENECA CO. NY 06/02/1998 17:30 EST Thunderstorm Wind 0 0 35.00K 0.00K
KING FERRY CAYUGA CO. NY 06/02/1998 17:35 EST Hail 1.75 in. 0 0 50.00K 0.00K
HOMER CORTLAND CO. NY 06/02/1998 18:02 EST Hail 1.00 in. 0 0 20.00K 0.00K
TRUMANSBURG TOMPKINS CO. NY 06/02/1998 18:13 EST Thunderstorm Wind 0 0 20.00K 0.00K
TAYLOR CORTLAND CO. NY 06/02/1998 18:45 EST Hail 0.75 in. 0 0 15.00K 0.00K
CINCINNATUS CORTLAND CO. NY 06/02/1998 18:50 EST Tornado F1 0 0 150.00K 0.00K
PITCHER CHENANGO CO. NY 06/02/1998 18:53 EST Tornado F1 0 0 250.00K 0.00K
PLYMOUTH CHENANGO CO. NY 06/02/1998 19:05 EST Thunderstorm Wind 0 0 25.00K 0.00K
NORWICH CHENANGO CO. NY 06/02/1998 19:30 EST Thunderstorm Wind 0 0 10.00K 0.00K
DAVENPORT DELAWARE CO. NY 06/02/1998 20:00 EST Hail 1.25 in. 0 0 35.00K 0.00K
ONEONTA OTSEGO CO. NY 06/02/1998 20:00 EST Thunderstorm Wind 0 0 35.00K 0.00K
JASPER STEUBEN CO. NY 06/02/1998 20:05 EST Thunderstorm Wind 0 0 10.00K 0.00K
Totals: 0 0 665.00K 0.00K