First Alert Weather In-Depth: New York’s tornado count

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – We can finally breathe across our region and New York State as the week-long round of severe weather will take a back seat with nice weather ahead, but what a wild week across the state it has been.

Fourteen tornadoes have been confirmed by the National Weather Service since Wednesday, July 10 and that puts us at number one for the most tornadoes to touch down in New York state for July. That number can go up as the National Weather Service will be surveying more damage reports through the upcoming weekend. Not only that, but we still have plenty of July to get through as well. So far in July, only three states have recorded more tornadoes than New York and those states are Nebraska (16), Texas (21), and Louisiana (26). As for the entire year, New York has seen 16 tornadoes touch down which is tied for 6th all-time for the state.

The most was 25 in 1992 with the top five rounding out with 18 in 1989. We have a lot of time left to crack the top 5 and even make a run at number one as severe weather is possible all year round. Some at home might also be thinking that it is rare for tornadoes to occur in New York state. As we have talked about in the past, it is not. And tornadoes will occur in the future. To see this many in the month is record-breaking, as stated above, but climatologically speaking our best months of the year to see tornadoes in New York are July and August. Thankfully this wild stretch of weather will take a break for us locally and the state, but be weather aware as severe weather is still possible through the rest of the summer.