Assessing Tornadic Environments in the Northeastern United States: A Case Study of the Anomalous 2024 New York Tornado Season

The northeastern United States is not typically associated with frequent tornado activity. However, the 2024 tornado season in New York produced 33 tornadoes, a number commonly found in Midwestern states. This event provides a useful case study for examining the atmospheric environments that supported tornadic convection in a region where severe weather environments remain less well characterized than in the central United States. This study investigates the atmospheric environments associated with the 2024 New York tornado season using ERA5 reanalysis data. Key severe weather parameters, including convective available potential energy (CAPE), vertical wind shear, helicity, and the Significant Tornado Parameter (STP), are analyzed to evaluate the spatial and temporal distribution of environments supportive of tornadic convection. Hourly gridded data is used to quantify the number of hours in which critical thresholds of these parameters are exceeded, providing a framework for comparing 2024 with previous seasons. Initial results show an elevated frequency of favorable severe weather environments across portions of New York during the 2024 season, particularly when aggregated into STP. These findings suggest that the 2024 season featured a greater number of environments supportive of organized convection and tornadic development. Continued analysis will further explore the spatial organization of these environments and their relationship to tornado frequency.