New Yorkers Wake Up to Tornado Warning, Severe Flooding

Severe thunderstorms in the New York metropolitan area brought with them heavy rainfall and flash flooding, closing highways and causing mass transit delays in the morning rush hour. The severe weather was accompanied by a middle-of-the-night tornado warning from the National Weather Service.
“We had quite the soaker last night,” the weather service’s New York bureau said on social media.
A tornado warning was issued for Brooklyn and Queens but the twister failed to materialize, however the rain fell heavy and fast, especially in northern Queens and parts of Westchester.   Meanwhile, scattered storms and isolated severe weather are possible Tuesday afternoon as well, with a threat of damaging winds.
LaGuardia Airport, which is located in northern Queens, recorded the highest amount of rain in the city from the storm, slightly in excess of 2” (5 cm).
The airport reported relatively few delays due to the weather but travelers ran into delays likely due to road closures and mass transit delays in getting to the airport.
The National Weather Service issued an emergency tornado warning to mobile phones shortly after 4:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, which remained in effect until 5 a.m.  The alert covered the southern part of Brooklyn and Queens, primarily covering Coney Island and the Rockaways peninsula.  The warning reportedly awakened dozens of people, based on social media posts by those who had been fast asleep at the time.
Heavy flooding was reported on the Long Island Expressway, a major east-west highway, causing multiple lane closures, while the Cross Island Parkway, which runs from the Whitestone Bridge in northern Queens to the Nassau county border was closed for several hours near the Throgs Neck Bridge.
Water on the tracks caused delays on the A, C, F, G, I, and R subway lines throughout the morning, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said in alerts it issued.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)