Today Bay Ridge is exactly 365 days separated from the tornado that touched down in the neighborhood, and NY1 is reporting that the dust has settled and things are getting back to normal for the most part. The morning of August 8th one year ago, an EF-2 tornado touched down wiping out homes and automobiles with winds of up to 135 mph. One resident reflects on the damage done at the time, while another says......

Monday evening's Gloomy Gotham by Susan McDowell via Gothamist Contribute Today is Heat Awareness Day. Luckily there is no excessive heat in the Big Apple to be aware of today. Morning sun should give way to afternoon clouds and the high will be 75 at best. There's a non-negligible chance of a shower or thunderstorm this afternoon and evening. With a stubborn upper-level low that's not showing any sign of movement, this week's weather......

This afternoon's rain will continue into the evening, as some areas are being warned about the storms. New Jersey is supposed to have heavy thunderstorms, a tornado warning was issued, then canceled, for Nassau County, and an urban flood warning was issued for Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens until 7PM! There was a "ground stop" on arriving flights at Newark and LaGuardia, and delays range from 3 to 4 hours at the three area airports.......

We love this week’s NY Mag article by “locavore” Manny Howard, who planted a farm in his 800 square foot Brooklyn backyard. He grew vegetables and raised both rabbits and chickens, with the goal of using what he raised from March through July as his sole subsistence for the month of August. His wife? Not so happy about the smell, the mess, the fact that her husband cut off his finger with a table saw.......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a water rescue at Chambers and Water Sts. off Manhattan, an armed robbery on Rockaway Blvd. and 75th St. in Queens, and a shooting on Grafton St. in Brooklyn. LibrerDia Lectorum, one of the city's oldest Spanish language bookstores will be closing September 30th. The Manhattan store on 14th St. opened in 1960 and became a mainstay of Spanish literature in the city. A fire broke out yesterday afternoon......

The string of pleasant, if not all that meteorologically interesting, weather continues today with another sunny, mild day. More of the same is expected tomorrow, though the mercury may crack the 80 degree mark. The Weather Service has finally come to their senses and backed off their earlier prediction of highs around 90 on Friday and Saturday. They are currently calling for highs around 86, which is more in line with weather.com's predictions of the......

The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that President Bush had signed a "major disaster declaration" for Queens on August 8, the day the weather (including a tornado in Brooklyn and Staten Island) caused much of the city to come to a standstill. This means that Queens residents and business owners will be able to apply for disaster relief. Some New York residents had been angry that the President was taking so long to sign off......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an escaped prsioner at East Fordham Rd. and Webster Ave. in the Bronx, a gas leak on Main St. in Queens, and a pedestrian struck on East 55th St. and 2nd Ave. in Manhattan. FEMA toured parts of Staten Island to determine if any homeowners were entitled to federal aid following last week's tornado and torrential rainstorms. Mayor Bloomberg shared some tips on how to be more environmentally friendly......

So, last week's weather featured intense rain that shut down the subway system, a tornado skipping through Staten Island and Brooklyn, an unbearably steamy afternoon, and a couple days of near-record low temperatures. This week's weather should feature, uh… uh… well, not much of anything other than warm, sunny days. If you haven't already seen it the Brooklyn Daily Eagle has a nice, but small, map of the tornado path. First touching down on Staten......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A murder-suicide on East 176th Street in the Bronx, a confined space rescue at 680 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and a sexual assault at Victory Blvd & Bay St. in Staten Island Breaking: The city and families of September 11 victims have worked out a compromise for this year's anniversary events; the city will allow families to enter the pit at Ground Zero. The Dow dropped 387 points today......

Residents are trying to clean up after the mess of yesterday's EF2 tornado that touched down in Brooklyn. At least 40 homes, many in Bay Ridge and Sunset Park, and buildings were damaged. The tornado touched down first at 6:30AM, with winds of over 100 miles per hour, making it the first in the borough since 1889 (there was an F1 in Staten Island in 1995; a F2 in Queens in 1985). Interesting fact: While......

Like the rest of the city yesterday, Brooklyn was recovering from an angry summer squall that shut down the subways and even had its own tornado. While all this was going on Gothamist learned from Porkchop Express that the fate of a Brooklyn institution hung in the balance. Namely, the pan-Latin paradise known as the Red Hook Ballfields. Yesterday Cesar Fuentes, the Executive Director of the Food Vendors Committee of Red Hook Park, met with......

Photographs of frustrated subway riders by md76 on Flickr While this morning's commute seems better, most mass transit riders are still confused, frustrated and even betrayed by the subway system and other rail service coming to a stand still during the Wednesday morning rush hour. The MTA admitted that the service was not acceptable on many accounts, from the flooding to the fact that the MTA's website was overwhelmed. Then there's also the fact......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A hazmat situation at 56th Avenue and Peck in Queens, a suspicious package at 110th and 5th Avenue in Manhattan, and lots of storm damage in Brooklyn Four NYPD traffic agents faked tickets to look busy; supervisors became suspicious when noticing a large number of tickets to out-of-town cars (city resident-owned cars get barcode tickets, but out-of-town tickers are handwritten). Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro had a heart......

The National Weather Service has confirmed that an EF-2 tornado touched down in Bay Ridge this morning. That category of tornado has winds between 111 to 135 miles per hours, and roofs were blown off buildings and trees fell on top of cars and in the middle of roads. A resident told NY1, "I saw a mass of just leaves turning and it was just dark, like a dark mass. I was afraid and......

Holy Tornado, Brooklyn! Reader Jeanne just emailed us with this observation: I live in Kensington, Brooklyn and I think that a tornado just passed through. Have you heard any news about a tornado from anyone else? Around 6:30am there were heavy rains, thunder and lightning when all of a sudden the wind got really loud and we could hear stuff smashing into the house. It was all just 30 seconds or so but now......

As a reader reported earlier, a tornado may have touched down in Bay Ridge. Funnel clouds were spotted early this morning and a tornado warning was posted for Brooklyn, Queens and parts of Nassau County. We won't know if the damage was caused by a tornado, microburst, or straight line winds until the National Weather Service sends out a forensics team to investigate. Now that the rain is gone, 2.5 inches in Central Park......

The cold front that visited us several times this week has been pulled out to sea by a developing low pressure system over Maine. During it's many crossings the front managed to squeeze a couple of inches of rain out over western portions of the city and three inches or more over Queens and Long Island. Wednesday morning's storm even spawned a weak tornado over Islip. Behind the front lies a whole lot of......

Today's morning subway and bus commute should be a lot smoother (unless you need to stop at Grand Central) than yesterday's messy commute. There were a number of subway disruptions and diversions due to flooding from the rain, which left many straphangers frustrated. But why did pouring rain stop the subway? Well, here's what the MTA says:NYC Transit utilized portable pumps and pump trains to help clear 600 feet of 2-foot-deep water across all four......

Oh dear. Not only is today Friday the 13th, and the thirtieth anniversary of the 1977 lightning-caused Blackout, it is also time for another Manhattanhenge. Could it just be astronomical coincidence or evidence of something more sinister? Today is also the anniversary of the 1895 Woodhaven tornado. The reporting is a bit scattered, but from what we read a tornado first touched down in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, killing three, then skipped over to......

Yesterday's thunderstorm left its mark around the area. Just under 2,000 homes were without power in the five boroughs (though, given Con Ed's counting, that could be many times more) while thousands of homes in Westchester, New Jersey and Connecticut were also powerless. About an inch of rain fell in Central Park. The winds were fierce: According to AccuWeather, the winds were "just short of hurricane force," and the Post reports winds were at 70......

A cold front is pressing down upon us from the north. The line of rain accompanying the front stretches from Albany to Scranton and should hit the city by mid-afternoon. Beware! Showers and perhaps a thunderstorm will produce locally heavy rains and gusty winds. We may even see a bit of hail. Most of the rain will be out of here by seven or eight this evening, but the chance of showers will linger until......

We were quite amused when we walked by this condo ad yesterday. Amused because there are two layers of clouds in the picture and neither of them is a true stratus cloud. The pinkish lower layer is mostly cumulus or altocumulus fading into what might be a bit of stratocumulus or altostratocumulus in the lower right corner. Higher up is a thin layer of cirrocumulus clouds. Choosing stratus to signify ultimate atmosphere is probably......

Pela was one of the many New York bands at SXSW last week. They kept a journal of their time there for us (which included bbq, hotel antics and a car crash)...yeehaw! Also check out My Brightest Diamonds's second journal entry for us, here. Listen: Lost to the Lonesome - remix.mp3 Tuesday March 13th It's 5am and we're heading to LaGuardia for a 7am flight. Very tired. We'd all been working nonstop until the night......

Today may be the last cold day of winter. Spring begins in twelve days and the only spot of cool air between now and then is likely to be next Saturday. This morning's low dipped down to nearly 262 Kelvin (Gothamist is in an SI units mood today) in Central Park. Bridgeport and Islip both set records lows this morning. We'll go out on a limb and say that, unless we get a late-season snowfall,......

Today's our lucky day! As late as 4:30 this morning, Gothamist was having a little insomnia problem, the Weather Service was calling for widespread freezing rain during the morning rush. Thankfully, that threat and the mess it would have created, have passed and all we've got to worry about today is a few flurries. That's right, it may snow today. Just a few flurries now and again, with maybe a heavier snow shower this evening.......

Andrew Bird, whose inspired 2005 album The Mysterious Production of Eggs was an indie hit, brought his sublime genre-defying songs (and socks) to a sold-out Bowery Ballroom last night. He was joined on percussion and keyboards by regular collaborator Martin Dosh and Jeremy Ylvisaker – a new addition to his road show – on bass and guitar. It’s always exciting to watch Bird weave his songs together live; in addition to playing violin, Gibson hollow-body......

That radar image is showing one bad-ass line of thunderstorms extending south from Rochester. The weather is heating up today, literally and figuratively. Central Park topped out at 69 degrees, while Teterboro reached 72. The 16 degrees above average is our most abnormally warm day since April 20th, when the high temperature was 21 degrees above normal. What we have to look forward to for the remainder of this spring-like day is lots of wind,......

Oooh, exciting weather this morning. As already mentioned a tornado warning was in effect for about 15 minutes. No tornado was detected. The warning accompanied intense rain in upper Manhattan and the Bronx, leading to a flash flood warning. 1010 WINS is reporting scattered power outages and flooding across the area. The reason for the storm activity is why Wednesday's forecasts for yesterday were all screwed up. Astute readers of Gothamist's Wednesday weather post will......