Heavy Storm (Tornado?) in NYC

Driving home on the Van Wyck North just as the storm started. Couldn't see 20 feet in front of me, whole car shaking heavily, crazy.

It calmed down a LITTLE bit, and then I came upon two overturned tractor trailers on the southbound side, one taking out a light pole that blocked two lanes on my side. Only one ambulance with one EMT on scene, with a crushed cab on one of the trucks and a partially crushed car under another.

I had to slowly make big turns around massive branches and a half dozen garbage pails all over the road. It was like I was in some video game. Never saw anything like it.

Here's the first flipped truck...
http://www.nycaviation.com/hosting/storms1_090610.jpg


Here's the top of the 2nd one as I passed...
http://www.nycaviation.com/hosting/storms2_090610.jpg

Here are two of the garbage pails I encountered. See how I have an open road? All that traffic is behind me.
http://www.nycaviation.com/hosting/storms3_090610.jpg

All that damage took place within 20 minutes. Yikes. Hope those wrecked drivers are ok.

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Originally Posted by Phil D.

Driving home on the Van Wyck North just as the storm started. Couldn't see 20 feet in front of me, whole car shaking heavily, crazy.

It calmed down a LITTLE bit, and then I came upon two overturned tractor trailers on the southbound side, one taking out a light pole that blocked two lanes on my side. Only one ambulance with one EMT on scene, with a crushed cab on one of the trucks and a partially crushed car under another..

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Yeah Ch 7 showed pictures of it from the traffic cameras. Looks wild!! Winds clocked at 80MPH in places. Quuens and Brooklyn rocked. LIRR suspended ALL SERVICE in BOTH directions due to trees and debris on the tracks. By the time it got to Eastern Nassau it had calmed down but as it approached it was scary as hell!! DARK skies and wild flashes of lightning!!

This guy got a photo of the same truck but from the southbound lanes... http://plixi.com/p/45482791

I heard about a possible tornado and one fatality. Since I am out here in the land of flip flops can you guys post some of your first hand accounts?

Tree fell on car on Eastbound GCP at Queens Blvd. One DOA.

Tree fell on car on GCP at Queens Blvd. One dead. All you hear in Queens is sirens. Kind of glad I'm not working EMS anymore.

In western Suffolk we got very heavy rain and winds.

Long Beach got pretty ferocious for about 10 miutes. I took a couple of pics of the leading edge of that thing and than locked me and the dogs inside. The winds picked up pretty hard. Sideways rain, a ton of lightning and than all in a matter of moments it was gone. No damage that I saw so far around Long Beach. Took a little spin to look. Normally if a gutter falls down someone calls LBFD around here though and I havent heard a siren.

Ton of trees down around Juniper Valley Park. Woodhaven Boulevard closed at Forest Park. Now all you can hear are sirens and Helicopters.

WOW the highways and roads of Queens are still a disaster and my old neighborhood Forest Hills was hit hard. Trees down and cars crushed everywhere!!

Between NoBama and this storm NYC has t heir work cut out for them tonight. That is for sure. The GCP I am hearing is still a literal train wreck and NYPD air units are all over the place working.

What a shot:
http://media.trb.com/media/photo/2010-09/56200337.JPG

I was tracking the line of super cells on NWS radar and boy were they impressive. I took a look out of the balcony to saw a green tint to the storm; a good indication it was strong. A few minutes later, I was hit with a strong thunderstorm squall with estimated winds of 50-60mph. Small hail was included. I took a walk down to Juniper Valley Park and made some pics. There were fallen trees and branches but nothing to indicate a tornado. NYPD helicopters were circling above the park apparently to deter looters I guess.

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u...r/002acopy.jpg
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u...r/005acopy.jpg
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u...r/008acopy.jpg
Clean cut:
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u...r/013acopy.jpg
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u...015acopy-1.jpg
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u...018acopy-1.jpg

It reminded me of the Midwest. The strong winds knocked over tractor trailers on the Gowanus!! Just amazing pictures and footage!!

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Originally Posted by emshighway

What a shot:
http://media.trb.com/media/photo/2010-09/56200337.JPG

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Thats awesome! was that shot yours?

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Originally Posted by Derf

Thats awesome! was that shot yours?

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I wish, someone sent it into WPIX.

Luke, the first tree was the one I mentioned on FB. A 13 year old kid riding a bike was trapped under it for a while. I don't know his condition but hope he is OK.

anyone know if we actually encountered a tornado or was it just a severe ts/ microburst that blew through?

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Originally Posted by cancidas

anyone know if we actually encountered a tornado or was it just a severe ts/ microburst that blew through?

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The National Weather Service will be out today to examine the damages and make that determination.

Pretty wild few minutes in our Ramp Tower at LGA. Don't think I ever remember seeing it get so dark (during daylight hours) as it did for a few minutes Thursday. Rain and wind extremely heavy but according to the radar's we saw worst past just south and east of LGA, less than a mile away. We had on CBS Channel 2 and weather forecaster Lonnie Quinn said live this is the worst weather he had ever seen in his career when he was on the air. I was shocked how quickly the Tornado warnings where issued for Staten Island, then Brooklyn, then Queens, it was surreal how FAST everything started happening. I understand their is a lighthouse on the Hudson in Jersey just south of Manhattan that has weather measuring equipment on top, I think they said a height of 263 feet, at that elevation a wing gust of 136 mph was recorded, equivalent to a Level 3 Hurricane. At one point by early-mid evening parts of the following roads where all closed at the same time. LIE, Grand Central Parkway, Cross Island Parkway, and the Van Wyke, also 7 train and LIRR in/out of Penn Station, just CRAZY !

Scary how the storm developed. Lee Goldberg (Ch7) showed how at 4:30 the storm was coming in from the west in NJ lots of rain and a few cells nothing special.
. But by 5:20 it ERUPTED (thats how Lee put it) into a 60 mile long line of destruction!! Port Washington was its finally blow before it slowed down.
They said 80MPH jetstream winds aloft, warm front nearby and sunshine ahead of it was the perfect cocktail to get this storm rocking!!

The National Weather Service has determined that two tornadoes touched down in the city Thursday night. Tornadoes were confirmed in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn and in the Flushing-Bayside area of Queens. A microburst was also confirmed to strike in the Forest Hills-Middle Village section of Queens.

WOW! That is an incredible shot!!!!!

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Originally Posted by moose135

The National Weather Service has determined that two tornadoes touched down in the city Thursday night. Tornadoes were confirmed in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn and in the Flushing-Bayside area of Queens. A microburst was also confirmed to strike in the Forest Hills-Middle Village section of Queens.

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It was actually a macroburst with winds over 125 mph.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLxeBCaDj4Q

Funnel cloud in the NY/NJ Metro Area taken from NJ looking toward Staten Island. The people on Staten Island that say they saw a funnel cloud really were not kidding.