Once again, it was the storm that never was.

Tornadoes and severe thunderstorms wreaked havoc across the central part of New York on Thursday. All day the media and the meteorologists warned, they appeared to be headed directly for the Capital Region.

Then the forecast was revised to just Greene and Columbia counties in this area. Eventually, it just dropped a smidgen of rain on our parched lawns and drifted off.

Other parts of the state were not so lucky. A possible tornado, or at least very strong winds, whipped through downtown Elmira, ripping off roofs and downing trees and power lines. Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency in Chemung County. Almost 100,000 lost power in the Southern Tier and Hudson Valley.

As the storm bore down, Cuomo and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned people to seek cover and stay away from windows.

In New York City, they took Instagram photos of menacing clouds that looked like the ones in the "Ghostbusters" movie. People throughout the Catskills tweeted along with the raindrops and tracked the storm as it bullied its way across the mountains.

Like so many times this winter, the severe weather we were warned about just never panned out. But, almost a year later, the damage from tropical storms Irene and Lee still has people jumpy because they know what rain can do.

Thursday's rainfall total was expected to be about 0.75 inches, according to the weather service. Instead, we saw only .02 inches, National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Montgomery said.

"The unstable atmosphere didn't get as far North as we expected," he said. "Here in the Capital Region, we dodged a bullet."

The storms had the potential to be the most severe this summer, according to the National Weather Service. That risk caused state Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation officials to declare mandatory evacuations for tent campers at 10 parks in parts of the state, including Lake Taghkanic State Park and Taconic State Park in southern Columbia County.

Columbia County partially activated its emergency management operations center to allow for up-to-date monitoring Thursday afternoon, but closed earlier than expected when the storm never hit, the sheriff's department said.

The storms were expected bring wind gusts of up to 60 mph and hail as large as two inches in diameter. Precisely where the storms will be the strongest is nearly impossible to predict, the weather service said.

Forecasters said the storm system was very similar to the one that devastated western Massachusetts with tornados last year. That storm, which tore through areas around Springfield, Mass., on June 1, had F2 and F3 twisters, the categories assigned to intense, 100-mph-plus twisters.

Thursday's storm system was the result of a warm front that moved northeast from Pennsylvania and was greeted by particularly unstable atmospheric conditions. The air was especially erratic because of the damp, humid climate brought by rainfall that came early Thursday morning.

Meteorologists said the sky was ripe for twisters and nasty weather because there will be plenty of warm, muggy air for the storm cells to feed off mixed with the incoming warm front and skies that are beginning to clear.

The last time more powerful tornados hit the Capital Region was in 2003, when twisters hit Columbia and Greene counties, and in 1998 in Mechanicville, when F3 tornadoes ripped apart dozens of homes and businesses.

Storm systems that can form tornados are rare in the Albany area, materializing only once every three or four years. The storms brought some added relief to farmers, and the region in general, from the dry spell that has persisted from the end of June and throughout most of July.

In the first two weeks of July, Albany saw just 0.11 inches of rain, significantly less than the 1.39-inch average for the first half of the month.

Since then, the area has been flush with rain, with storms on July 14 and 15 bringing more than two inches of rain and storms earlier this week dropping just over an inch. Albany is now at 3.39 inches of rain for the month, above the 3.32-inch normal for July to date. The Capital Region is still about 1.5 inches under the normal for June 1 to date, and about 2.5 inches under for the year.

Local events and government officials started preparing for the storms when word of their potential severity began to spread Wednesday night. Gov. Cuomo sent out a warning urging residents to prepare for the possibility of severe storms and widespread power outages. The governor ordered the state Emergency Operations Center to open at 1 p.m and told New Yorkers to pay close attention to local news reports to stay up to date with the storms' progress.

Albany's Alive at Five concert was moved into the Times Union Center and some departures and arrivals were canceled at Albany International Airport.