A Tornado Touches Down in Brooklyn???

If a severe thunderstorm can do this, what will a direct hit by a hurricane and/or rising sea level do? Doesn't take much imagination to figure that out.

Powerful thunderstorms swept through the New York metropolitan area this morning, snapping trees, damaging hundreds of cars and buildings, and throwing the morning commute into chaos. The severe weather was blamed for at least one death and a handful of injuries.

As a strong blast of rain pounded the city early this morning, nearly every subway station was flooded or shut down, forcing commuters out onto the streets and into taxis and buses, and bringing traffic in many areas to a standstill. The Long Island Rail Road, Metro North and New Jersey Transit all were affected, and the region’s three major airports — La Guardia, Kennedy and Newark — were reporting flight cancellations and long delays. [italics mine]

Some people even reported what looked like a tornado touching down in Brooklyn.

One commuter, Pete Chiaramonte, 41, who was on his way to work at a towing company in Brooklyn this morning, said he saw what he thought was the storm touching down at around 5.30 a.m. near the corner of 37th Street and 13th Avenue. “It was a funnel shape,” he said. “It looked kind of black and blue,” adding, “it was way up high and came right down on the roof of” a department store. “Pieces of the roof were all over the place. It was a big bang.”

A meteorologist from Penn State denied that a tornado had touched down.

***

Update! Yes, they say it WAS a tornado in Brooklyn.