Did you know that, on average, excessive heat kills more people annually than floods, lightning, tornadoes, hurricanes? No? Then you need to know that today is Heat Awareness Day. While we won't see any excessive heat this holiday weekend it will be plenty warm and sticky outside. The atmosphere has slowed to a crawl the last few days and that means a continuation of the humidty, and the occasional shower or thunderstorm. Like yesterday, those showers could be heavy. Assuming the thick fog dissipates, this afternoon's high should reach the mid 70s across the city. more ›

The weather is being all busy today. A coastal storm is moving northward, and that will cause both a warm front and cold front to pass through the city in quick succession. The warm front's path is making for a steep precipitation gradient. more ›

You'll have to excuse us today, we are traumatized by the Weather Channel's redesign. So traumatized that we're boycotting them for a day. Anyway, as expected earlier in the week a warm front has taken up residence a couple hundred miles south of the city. The front itself isn't going to move much until Friday, but there will be episodes where warm, moist air overruns the front and gives us rain. Like this afternoon for example. Most of the rain will be light but heavier showers are possible at times. more ›

That is one bad-ass storm centered over Minnesota this morning. The central surface pressure of the storm has dipped down to 955 millibars, which is the lowest ever recorded for a "U.S. non-tropical land-based system" says the Weather Channel. Snaking way, way out ahead of that low pressure system is a warm front and cold front combo meal responsible for the weather here. The city is currently in the warm air and will remain so for most of the day. While it is warm we are pretty much guaranteed showers and possibly thunderstorms. Look for the thermometer to pretty much hug 70 degrees for the whole day. more ›

Well, that was something else: After a beautiful day, the evening brought a sudden thunderstorm to the NYC area—hail "the size of macadamia nuts" (as one reader who sent a photo put it) bombarded Brooklyn so severely that snow-like mounds formed. There's also flooding, and the Jets-Vikings game, which was supposed to start at 8:30 p.m., was delayed until 9:15 p.m. because of lightning! Check out these videos: more ›

The severe thunderstorm watch is over—and so is the lightning show! Our readers have taken some photographs of the dramatic lightning storm. more ›

First, a big Gothamist thank you to all of your reports, photos and videos from yesterday's storm and the resulting damage. A trained spotter observed a funnel cloud over Staten Island and this video linked in the epic storm post does shows a textbook example of a funnel cloud, if not a small tornado, extending out of a wall cloud over Perth Amboy. Whether or not it was a tornado or straight-line winds that caused the damage over the city will be determined by National Weather Service meteorologists today (Severe Weather CSI!). more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] The storm that tore through the tri-state area yesterday afternoon hammered parts of the Bronx particularly hard, sending trees crashing into cars and houses and scattering participants in the Dominican Day parade. Tree branches smashed windows and tore down power lines, and this morning 348 Con Ed customers in the borough are without power. Although a tornado warning was issued at 3:40 p.m., John Murray of the National Weather Service says there was "no confirmed evidence" of a twister. But the locals know what they saw. more ›

We know it's been hot these past nineteen days of July. And now, it's going to thunderstorm-y. The Post says, "Now we can expect at least a week's worth of thunder and lightning with sporadic storms barreling through the city almost every day through the end of the week." more ›

After hearing yesterday's severe thunderstorm warning and receiving alarming reports of hail the size of Double Downs hitting the Throgs Neck Bridge, many of us in Brooklyn and Manhattan were ultimately left wondering, "Where's the beef?" But while many parts of NYC remained mostly clear and dry, Queens and Long Island got hammered by the brief but violent thunderstorm. Trees fell all over the tri-state area, power lines were lines were down in Queens, and as of this morning more than 16,000 homes are without electricity on Long Island. In College Point, residents said they "saw funnels coming down from the sky." Wednesday we had an earthquake, yesterday tornadoes, maybe locusts tomorrow? more ›

That was one hellacious storm that blasted through the city last night. The worst hit areas were the Upper West Side and Central Park. The rain gauge at Belvedere Castle was on the edge of the storm and recorded .64 inches of rain in just a few minutes. To our semi-trained eye it looked like at least double that amount fell on 116th Street in Harlem. more ›

The summer storm that rolled into town a couple hours ago was brief but powerful: There are a number of incidents about downed trees all over Manhattan (see the Gothamist Newsmap), such as "Trees down at West Side Hwy & 70th St," a "downed tree on a taxi" on E 86th St, and "Tree down on a car" at Riverside Dr & 101st St (a tipster writes, "Man was stuck under car for 20 minutes after an entire tree fell on him while he was driving in Riverside Park on 101 st)—some even have requests for "additional chain saws"—we hope no one was hurt. more ›

Today's weather looks like it could have been ripped out of a meteorology textbook. The hazy, hot and humid air mass of this morning will be replaced by a cool, calm, and congenial Canadian high pressure system this evening. The cold front between the two is likely to produce thunderstorms this afternoon as it plows through the unstable air. Before the rain arrives we should have mostly sunny skies and a high in the upper 80s. Watch out for rip currents if you're going out to the beach. more ›

From the National Weather Service, a "Special Weather Statement": "Strong thunderstorms will move into New York City between 1 and 2 PM... At 1134 am EDT...National Weather Service Doppler radar was tracking a long line of strong thunderstorms extending from west central New Jersey southward to northern Delaware moving northeast at 40 mph. Thunderstorms will first move into Staten Island around 1 PM and then into the rest of the city by 130 PM. Cloud to ground lightning is expected along with wind gusts up to 40 mph. In addition...heavy rains will likely result in ponding on roadways." So, it's another stormy Sunday! more ›

It's such a pretty day today that it's a little hard to believe that yesterday was practically apocalyptic with the big afternoon-into-evening thunderstorms. Now the National Weather Service has confirmed that the funnel cloud seen in Wantage, NJ did touch the ground and is in fact a tornado. According to WCBS 2, there was a lot of havoc from the tornado, whose winds were up to 120 mph: "Officials say an EF2 tornado tore through the town of Wantage, ripping roofs of some houses, destroying barns, and causing extensive damage to roadways in its path... Two barns were ripped apart; their walls tossed around like pieces of paper. Then there was the silo that tumbled like it was a toy. The silo was made with about 40 tons of concrete and steel all meshed together." more ›

Earlier this evening, the skies opened up offered a torrent of rain—not to mention some strong winds that have left downed trees in all the boroughs. Then there were rainbows—and now there's more thunder and lightning! There's still a severe thunderstorm warning in effect; according to WCBS 2, the National Weather Service "has issued the alert for Queens, Kings (Brooklyn), Richmond (Staten Island), New York (Manhattan), and Bronx Counties in New York until 9:45 p.m." more ›

Sometimes the weather can be aesthetically pleasing. Not just in a rainbow and fluffy cloud kind of way, but also in the way the jet stream and upper level disturbances interact with high and low pressure systems near the ground. more ›

The storm cell that brought hail to Yonkers last night skipped the Bronx only to hit Nassau County. The Weather Service is sending meteorologists out this morning to see if some of the damage was caused by a tornado. more ›

There's one more day of rain to contend with before the dry weekend. Two upper level disturbances are going to pass overhead today. You know the drill, look out for scattered showers and thunderstorms from early this afternoon through the evening. These are expected to be slow-moving storms, so they may dump lots of rain where they strike. Also, small hail and gusty winds. We'll see highs from the mid 70s to near 80. more ›

June 12th. The temperature has not been above normal since June 12th. Today threatens to be the first warmer than average day in more than two weeks. This morning's low was 65 degrees. The mercury at Belvedere Castle will need to climb to the predicted high of 85 in order for us to break the cool weather streak. Believe it or not, there is only a slight chance of a shower or thunderstorm this afternoon. more ›

The King of Pop is gone but the rainy weather is threatening to be here forever. What looked earlier in the week to be a change toward drier weather has completely collapsed. Memories of yesterday afternoon's few short hours of beautiful sunshine will have to pull us through the next few days. more ›

Do you know what didn't happen between 2am Monday and early this morning? That's right, the city went 48 hours without rain! A high pressure system was able to hold the stubborn cut-off low from moving back into the area. more ›

The non-moving front means the slight hope for sun today has evaporated. Or not evaporated if you want to be literal. Instead a cloudy, drizzly morning will give way to a mostly cloudy afternoon with a slight chance of rain, if not a thunderstorm and, if you are good and eat all your vegetables, just the slightest chance of sun. Winds out of the east will keep the temperature to the low 70s. more ›

Unsettled is this week's weather theme. The primarily west-to-east flow of the summer jet stream will let surface fronts flop around like an oversized Montauk Monster in its death throes. Okay, we're not exactly sure what that analogy is supposed to mean, but there's a weak cold front approaching the city today. The front will stall south of town and make the humid air less stable, leading to an increasing chance of showers from this afternoon through tomorrow. Look for highs in the 70s both days. more ›