Did A Tornado Touch Down In New York State Over the Weekend? If Not, Then What Was It?

While most parts of the Hudson Valley were enjoying sunny and warm weather Saturday, some residents not too far to the north were claiming they saw the beginnings of a tornado forming over head. But while this rotating cloud may have looked ominous, was it actually a confirmed tornado, according to the National Weather Service? If so, how come there were never any severe storms in the forecast that day?

See pic HERE. 

Residents near Hudson Falls notified the NWS Saturday afternoon that they thought they saw what looked like a tornado forming in the clouds near Lake George. What was stranger was weather conditions did not call for the threat of tornadoes that afternoon, and there were no warnings issued. A spokesperson for the National Weather Service that while it was indeed a rotating column of air, there was never any actual touch down to the ground, so it was not a tornado. It just appears to a harmless funnel.

Definitely a spectacle, but fortunately nothing more than that.

So far, according to the official Database, there has been one been one EF-1 tornado in 2021 and the storm touched down in Amenia in Dutchess County. The tornado was reported April 22, as a line of severe storms pushed through the region that afternoon. But while that was the only tornado listed in the database so far, the NWS confirmed there was another EF-1 July 19 in Yellow Barn State Park in Tompkins County. According to records, the most active years were 2011 and 1998, when 23 tornadoes were reported both years across the state. 2020 saw 12 tornadoes reported in New York.