Tornadoes on Long Island

By Rich Hoffman

Its not Kansas but Long Island does get its fair share of tornadoes and waterspouts. The National Weather Confirmed a waterspout on June 16th in Northport Harbor and it weakened as it came ashore.

According the data I have found, since 1960, Long Island has seen 27 tornadoes. Suffolk County 18 and Nassau County 9.

Islip Terrace July 18th 2007 a EF-1 tornado,  a Tornado on Friday August 25th 2006 in the Massapequa/Amityville area was Classified as a F0 Tornado. We had a waterspout on September 27th 2006, in Port Jefferson Harbor. August 14th 2005 a F1 Tornado in Glen Cove.

How do tornadoes Form and how strong are they?
You need a lot of the right weather parameters for tornadoes. You need thunderstorms to form and you need vertical wind sheer. Vertical wind sheer is a change in direction in the wind with height. For example, a southeast wind with a speed  20 mph at 100 feet above the ground, At 3000 feet above the ground the wind direction is West/Northwest at a speed of 50 mph. The change in wind from Southeast to Northwest with height is the wind sheer. This sheer helps produce the rotation in the clouds and the formation of a funnel cloud. It is not called a tornado until that funnel clouds makes contact with the ground.

The scale which the National Weather Service uses to determine how strong a tornado is the Fujita Scale, named after T. Theodore Fujita. The scale has 6 level from F0 to F5.
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/f-scale.html

In February 2007, The Weather Service changed the scale to the EF Scale or Enhance Fujita Scale. The new scale takes in to account DOD or Degree of Damage along with estimated wind speeds.
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/ef-scale.html
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/efscale/

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/efscale/

Dr. T. Theodore Fujita first introduced The Fujita Scale in the SMRP Research Paper, Number 91, published in February 1971. From the National Weather Service, He wanted something that categorized each tornado by intensity and area. The scale was divided into six categories:

• F0 (Gale)
• F1 (Weak)
• F2 (Strong)
• F3 (Severe)
• F4 (Devastating)
• F5 (Incredible)

Dr. Fujita's goals in his research in developing the F-Scale were

• categorize each tornado by its intensity and its area
• estimate a wind speed associated with the damage caused by the tornado

The new EF Scale uses Damage to determine how strong the Tornado was. The waterspout in Northport Harbor if it remained a Tornado most likely would of been a EF-0. http://monroecounty.virtualave.net/southkystormchase/efscale.gif

In-dept report on the EF Scale.
http://www.wind.ttu.edu/EFScale.pdf

You can train and learn more about the EF Scale.
http://www.wdtb.noaa.gov/courses/EF-scale/index.html

On Long Island, we actually do get tornadoes. All have been on the lower potion of the Fujita. The Strongest reported was an F-2.

Here is a link to severe weather for Long Island
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/okx/severewx.html

Where tornadoes have occurred from 1950-2003 in southeast NY.
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/okx/pdf/TORNADO_NY.pdf

Read more about Severe Thunderstorms and Formation of Tornadoes here
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/brochures/ttl.pdf

Severe Weather Page and info on Tornadoes- Scroll Down the Page
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/okx/severewx.html

Information on Tornadoes
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/brochures/tornado.shtml

Comments

[Phillip]

I heard that Rich smell like a pop up bacon and egg sandwich this morning.

[Ann]

Did you see Rich this morning.He got a hair cut and if his condition grows worse(no pun intended).He will be needing a pop up hair piece.

[Paul]

Today Rich says to watch out for pop up rip tides and pop up rip currents..LOL

[PO'ED]

Rich don't you mean pop up tornado.Man whats the deal with making up your own weather conditions..you went from pop up showers to pop up storms.What the hell is a pop up storm..Gimme a break..Whats next pop up tornados

Get a life and loose the pop ups..