[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.
Glen Shikora of Kingsbridge says he's convinced it was a tornado, telling the Daily News, "I heard this roar and thought it was the 1 train coming." A Riverdale resident whose car was destroyed by a fallen tree declares, "It was definitely a tornado. It came out of nowhere." And another Kingsbridge local tells the tabloid, "I heard glass breaking and trees snapping. It was like that movie 'Twister.' The windows broke and the wind just knocked over everything inside. I ran into the bathroom and waited 'till it stopped. It was very scary."
Over in Brooklyn, the sudden storm interrupted the first set of the free Pool Party concert at East River State Park. As the rain and wind blasted through, an announcement was made from the stage that the event would be relocated to Brooklyn Bowl, sending a thousand wet concertgoers scrambling north on Kent Avenue like an army of malnourished rats following the piper. Winds gusted up to 60 mph in parts of NYC and Long Island, where a giant walnut tree crashed down in the Malhayno family's backyard, where the kids had been playing moments before being summoned inside. The OEM is asking that people report down trees to 311.
But once the storm blew through, the temperature plummeted from a high of 93 degrees to 71 degrees. Upper West Side resident Mike Harris spoke for all of us when he told WCBS, "I'll take the rain any day over 100 degrees, like it was earlier." For more on this weekend's storms, check out these stunning photos and video.
UPDATE: The locals were right! The National Weather Service has confirmed that a tornado touched down in the Riverdale Sunday. Fox 5 reports that a National Weather Service storm damage team surveyed the damage today and determined that it's consisted with an EF1 tornado. After blasting through Riverdale with 100 mph for about 10 minutes, the tornado moved on across Long Island Sound and swept into Nassau and Suffolk Counties.
