The sudden blast of Mother Nature’s fury on Thursday lasted just minutes, but left a path of destruction across the tri-state area.
The National Weather Service confirmed Friday that two tornadoes and a microburst struck the New York City area on Thursday evening.
The weaker of the two, with gusts up to 80 miles per hour, was in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The other tornado touched down about two miles south of Flushing, Queens, north of Bayside with winds of 100 miles per hour.
But most of the damage in Queens was caused by a macroburst. It packed winds of 125 mph, hitting Middle Village and Forest Hills.
The NWS said the macroburst was a mile wide.
The city estimates more than 1,000 trees were destroyed and dozens of buildings damaged. The fury of wind and rain that pummeled the area was New York City’s ninth and tenth tornado since 1950, the National Weather Service said Friday night.
Kyle Struckmann, a meteorologist with the agency, said it was amazing that only one person died.
“It’s practically a miracle considering the population that was affected by this,” he said.
On Friday, Gov. David Paterson asked Federal Emergency Management Agency to send crews to assess the extent of the damage.
Whipping winds snapped trees like twigs, toppling them onto cars, homes, power lines, and anything else in the way.
Thursday’s fast-moving storm tore through Queens, where three neighborhoods seemed to have been hit particularly hard – Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, and Kew Gardens Hills.
Trees were toppled onto cars and homes, and workers were assessing the damage and clean-up on Friday.
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(Source: WCBSTV)
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3 Responses
On Erev Yom Kippur too. Hope we all got the message from HaShem and did not turn the other cheek. Hope all had an easy and meaningful fast and that all our tefillos were answered or will be answered in the coming year. As we all know they were answered already because if something positive or negative happens it already occured on Yom Kippur but was reserved for a latter date.
Also as we read of the Kohen Gadol going and leaving the Kodesh HaKodoshim we should only be able to see it happen Next Year in Jerusalem AMEN
So was it a microburst (paragraph 2) or a macroburst (paragraph 4)? Please define the terms for those of us who are not metorologists.
“Please define the terms for those of us who are not meteorologists.”
You have a computer so why don’t you just google the terms?
A “mIcroburst” is a downburst of wind from a storm that effects an area less than 2.5 miles wide in diameter when it hits the ground. A “mAcroburst” is any downburst wider than 2.5 miles.