in central New York before reforming into a tornado outbreak at around 11 am on May 31. Summary Overall, the derecho traveled from southern Minnesota to central New York in 15 hours at an average speed of . It became one of the most damaging derecho events in North America's history, causing $300 million in damage. May 31 New York and Pennsylvania tornadoes On Sunday, May 31, Friday's cold front, which stalled over southern Pennsylvania, started moving quickly back northward as a warm front as strong low pressure approached the Great Lakes. North of the warm front, most of the Hudson Valley and Western New England were under a cool and stable marine air mass, as a result of southeast winds from the Atlantic Ocean. Around 8 am, the warm front was located roughly over the Mohawk River to central and northern Massachusetts, producing powerful thunderstorms. After the warm front's passage, sunshine broke out and strong heating commenced across the Northeast with temperatures quickly rising from the 50s through the 70s into the 80s, and dewpoints skyrocketing from the lower 40s into the upper 60s. surface winds began blowing from the southeast at around 30 mph, while the winds at mid-levels were from the southwest at 60 to 80 mph, and the winds at jetstream level were still ranging from 120 to 150 mph from the west. High levels of instability were present as well. This created an unusually highly sheared environment in the Northeast. The Storm Prediction Center issued a High Risk for severe thunderstorms across Northern Pennsylvania, most of New York, Western Massachusetts and Western Vermont. A High Risk had never before been issued for the Northeastern United States, and hasn't been since this event. This indicated an abnormally dangerous weather situation for this region of the country, a situation more common in the Plains States and Midwest. Around 1 pm, the Michigan derecho was moving into New York from Ontario and rapidly weakening. The decaying squall line broke apart into discrete convection over New York and Pennsylvania, which quickly re-intensified into tornadic supercells. The most destructive tornado of the day was an F3 that tore through Mechanicville and the adjacent town of Stillwater. It caused major damage to Mechanicville's old industrial section located on Route 4 and 32 along the Hudson River. One of the two historic smokestacks (visible from 2 miles away) was knocked down by