Being a Cornell student earns you many privileges — including being woken up by an emergency alert in the middle of the night while at home for the summer on another continent.
However, Cornellians on campus on Wednesday, July 10 at 4:22 p.m. were urged to take shelter due to a possible tornado moving in the direction of campus. This was one of the 42 tornado warnings issued by the National Weather Service across New York on July 10, breaking the state’s previous record for the total number of tornado warnings issued in one day.
The National Weather Service issues a tornado warning when a tornado has either been spotted or indicated by the weather radar. People placed under the warning are advised to immediately go to the basement of a sturdy structure or home. If they do not have access to a basement, they should go to an interior room on the first floor and most importantly, avoid any windows.
While the tornado-warned storm that passed through Ithaca did not end up producing a tornado, some other locations across the state were not as lucky. Ten tornadoes have been confirmed by the Storm Prediction Center, with the two strongest tornadoes ranked as EF-1 tornadoes, producing peak winds estimated to be around 110 mph.
The EF scale of ranking tornadoes ranges from EF-0 to EF-5 where EF-0 is the weakest ranking and EF-5 is the strongest ranking. To be ranked as an EF-1, a tornado must have an 86-110 mph wind gust lasting at least 3 seconds long.
The tornadoes in New York were part of a three-day tornado outbreak caused by the remnants of Hurricane Beryl as it moved inland and tracked Northeast across the United States after making landfall in Texas on July 8. In total, the hurricane produced 46 tornadoes until it finally dissipated and pushed out into the Atlantic Ocean.
It is not uncommon for either a hurricane or its remnants to produce tornadoes after it makes landfall. When a hurricane moves over land, its fast winds create wind shear, which is a vertical change in wind speed and direction traveling up through the atmosphere. Wind shear is also an essential ingredient for tornado formation.
While tornadoes occur more frequently in the Great Plains, they still happen in the Northeast. New York’s tornado season averages about 10 tornadoes each year, with the most usually occurring in July.
New York’s many hills and trees can make it especially difficult to spot a nearby tornado so it is increasingly important to know the weather forecast, have a tornado plan in place and be prepared to use it if a tornado warning is issued.