Why was the tornado warning issued late Sunday night across Onondaga County?
Many in Onondaga County were rudely awakened late Sunday night a little after 1230 Sunday night/early Monday morning to buzzing alarms on their phones that there was a Tornado Warning! The warning prompted you to seek shelter immediately and go to the basement or lowest floor of your home as soon as possible! ABOVE IS THE TORNADO WARNED STORM AT 1240 AM MONDAY (LATE SUNDAY NIGHT)  Yes, there was a lot of lightning and heavy rain and even a little hail in spots too, but not much damage occurred thankfully with this line of storms as it rolled through between 11 and 3 am Sunday night/early Monday morning. At this point, with such minimal damage reported across Onondaga County and CNY it appears there was NOT a twister late Sunday night thankfully. This is because the velocity scan of the storm displayed the movement of the rain towards (green colors) and away (red colors) from the radar site within the thunderstorm that was moving through Syracuse. When we as meteorologists see the red and green coloring right next to each other on the velocity scan that tells us theres rotation taking place within that cell. Due to the rotation detected on the doppler radar velocity scan the National Weather Service decided to issue the Tornado Warning. ABOVE IS THE VELOCITY SCAN OF THE TORNADO WARNED STORM LATE SUNDAY NIGHT  Below is a tweet from the National Weather Service in Binghamton showcasing the velocity scan that triggered the Tornado Warning late Sunday night. This is what prompted the Tornado Warning earlier in the #Syracuse metro; one cell was merging into a larger one, then this showed up on radar velocity: rotation tightened to ~80 mph. We are unaware if the rotation ever ended up reaching ground level, however. #nywx pic.twitter.com/cmL1KfZclH  NWS Binghamton (@NWSBinghamton) June 14, 2021  Thankfully, this tornado warned storm likely only had rotation up in the clouds and not down at the surface in the form of a tornado. It was stated live on television that just because a tornado warning was issued doesnt mean there is a tornado on the ground unless it is observed/spotted which thankfully was not the case. HERES AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT LIKELY HAPPENED OVER SYRACUSE LATE SUNDAY NIGHT  Either way, when a tornado warning is issued in your area you want to make sure you get to the lowest floor in your home and away from windows, preferably the center of your home. Hopefully its a long while before we have to worry about this again!