Friday, September 17, 2010

Worse Than Our Last Tornado

Should the NWS declare a tornado through the heart of Brooklyn, I feel confident stating that it was a stronger tornado than the Brooklyn tornado of August 2007 that tore through my neighborhood, Bay Ridge, and Borough Park around 6 in the morning that day. I'm basing this on the pictures I've been seeing. Despite the drama of the fallen tree images, it is the street lamp and signal knockdowns that are indicating this. If our August 8th storm was shifting from an F0 to an F1, I would think this was an F1 shifting to an F2 at times. It also hit a more densely built, older section of Brooklyn which I think, if not actually doing more damage, contributed to the perception that it did. I wish I had saved the base radial velocity doppler image, where I clearly saw the blue and brown signature coming in off the harbor towards Park Slope.

5 comments:

  1. It was definitely intense, that's for sure. I got home just as the sky turned black. Within seconds it was pouring sheets of rain and the then the wind started. I ran out to our porch to move some of my potted plants from the ledge onto the porch floor, and when I opened the screen door I really believed it was going to tear off and fly away. It literally took all of my weight to push it closed, and it wasn't easy.

    I kept thinking about the Sycamore tree in our yard with the dead upper part and hoping it wouldn't come down...it didn't, and amazingly enough all of my plants were fine. A few had taken a short tumble but survived.

    I haven't seen the neighborhood yet, but I hear there were trees down all over Park Slope this morning.

    Some storm!

    Aimee

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  2. Yes, yes. Aimee, You were right there in it!

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  3. I wish Id seen those signatures, too. I think something came right up Atlantic? But it wasn't strong enough there, to do the damage it did in the Slope and Queens - and also too far over. What impressed me was the speed. I've never seen weather happen so fast. It teaches you quickly that wanting extreme weather is a bit stupid.

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  4. I just posted some photos that my friend sent me of the destruction in his neighborhood. It's amazing how fast the storm came and how much damage it caused!
    http://nycgardening.blogspot.com/2010/09/aftermath-of-tornado.html

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  5. Its nuts. Queens got it real bad in terms of trees. I learned one thing about being in a city in a bad wind storm -get out of the car. Right? Isn't that what all those pictures of trees on flattened cars told you. Did me!

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