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EF1 tornado in Queens County, New York

Tornado September 16, 2010 · Queens County, New York

EF1
Rating
4.0 mi
Path length
100 yd
Path width
2
Deaths
1
Injury
$17.2M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A National Weather Service Storm Survey Team confirmed a tornado in Queens.

The tornado impacted Flushing and Bayside. In Flushing, on Browne Street between Roosevelt and 38th Avenues, the third floor of a residential brick building was severely damaged structurally. Large tree tops were lying on top of buildings and shot like projectiles between buildings. Sides of houses were peeled back. There was clear evidence of twisted metal along the side of the building. On Warren Street near the intersection of Roosevelt Avenue, a steel framed water tower was blown over on the roof. There was a partial roof collapse on another residential building.

A Pennsylvania woman was killed in her car by a falling tree on Grand Central Parkway. Her passenger was injured. A man trying to assist the woman suffered a brain aneurysm and died.

The tornado touched down around 2.5 miles south of Flushing and lifted 1 mile northeast of Bayside over Little Neck Bay.

The wider storm

A warm front in conjunction with strong upper level winds produced numerous severe thunderstorms, including tornadic cells, across the New York City Metropolitan Area.

Began near Flushing (40.7400, -73.8400).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 262537. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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