NYC TORNADO OR NOT?

Written by: Bob Metcalfe

Unusually strong storms rocked NYC and the surrounding areas last night. Several dozen storm reports flooded into their NWS office over a short period of time, with images like this one being commonplace. Several reports have even said there was funnel cloud.

This was one of the reports I found from a trained Skywarn spotter:

0535 PM FUNNEL CLOUD 2 NNE HUGUENOT 40.56N 74.16W 09/16/2010 RICHMOND (STATEN I NY TRAINED SPOTTER

That gives the idea of a tornado even more credence. There was even a 74 mph MEASURED wind gust at a mesonet station, along with reports of 1"+ hail. The survey teams have been dispersed today, and will likely have their report out either late tonight or sometime tomorrow. The question is whether or not they'll find that it was in fact a tornado or just a microburst. Either way, its very odd to see such damage in a place like New York City.