Two rare tornadoes struck New York City on Thursday
Only a handful of tornadoes have ever been recorded within New York’s city limits
Officials reported at least two tornadoes in and near New York City on Thursday evening as severe thunderstorms rolled across the region.
The confirmation from the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) joins a rare handful of known tornadoes to strike within New York’s city limits.
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Conditions were favourable for severe storms as far south as Washington on Thursday evening amid high moisture and instability.
A potent cluster of thunderstorms pushed into New York City just after dinnertime on Thursday, spawning several tornadic waterspouts off the region’s southern shores. A tornadic waterspout is simply a tornado that forms over water instead of land.
Two of these waterspouts came ashore as full-fledged tornadoes.
The first tornado occurred southeast of John F. Kennedy International Airport, while the second tornado came ashore just outside of city limits in Atlantic Beach. Local news reports indicated the latter twister caused minor damage and at least one injury.
Meteorologists and emergency management officials hadn’t yet rated the tornadoes as of Friday afternoon.
Thursday night’s tornado near JFK Airport marks the 12th twister confirmed in New York City proper since official records began in 1950. The city’s strongest recorded tornado was an EF-2 that hit Brooklyn on the morning of Aug. 8, 2007.
New York is the most populous city in the U.S. with more than 8.5 million residents and a population density more than 10 times larger than that of the Greater Toronto Area.
Despite long-held myths, tornadoes can and sometimes do strike dense city centres. Tornadoes seeming to ‘avoid’ cities is largely a function of the slim odds of a twister striking any one location.