Our "History of Tornadoes in New York" Series is slowly drawing to an end. Now, we want to look at specific stats.

We want to look at the areas that are least affected by tornadoes. Do you know which part of the state this would be? Honestly, you would probably have a pretty close guess (or you'll be correct).

We figured you would guess the Adirondacks. If you did, you were right... Well, half right. Actually, there are two counties that are tied for the least amount of tornadoes. One of those counties is Franklin in the Adirondacks, and the other one is Orleans, which is on the western side of the state.

According to Homefacts, these two counties have only seen four tornadoes each from 1950 to 2014. Between the total of eight tornadoes no injures or deaths were reported. Franklin County's strongest tornadoes were two F2s, while Orleans County's strongest was an F1.

First, let's look at the tornado history for Franklin County. These are the dates and strengths of the storms, collected from Homefacts:

May 6, 1952 - F2
Sept. 19, 1954 - F2
July 26, 1986 - F1
June 1, 2004 - F0

Pretty short list, right? Now, we're going to take a look at the history of tornadoes that have hit Orleans County. These are the stats from Homefacts:

Apr. 6, 1979 - F0
Sept. 29, 1986 - F1
July 25, 2009 - EF0 --> First tornado reported after the switch to the "EF" rating
July 19, 2013 - EF0

These two counties aren't the only ones in New York that are in the single digits for tornado touch downs between this 64 year span. Eight other areas share that bragging right.

COUNTY               TORNADOES:
Essex                            5
Monroe                          5
Hamilton                        6
Niagara                         6
Wayne                          6
Jefferson                       7
Clinton                          8
St. Lawrence                 9

As you can see from the counties above, most of these areas are either in the Adirondacks or are by the northwestern side of the state. Sure, they have seen a lot less tornadoes than counties in Central New York, but they do still get them. That just goes to show that tornadoes can hit pretty much anywhere.

 

 


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