The National Weather Service has confirmed at least one tornado touched down in the New York area Thursday evening, causing major damage at a pair of Long Island surf clubs before dissipating. And the NWS said it was investigating a second possible waterspout nearby.
The confirmed tornado touched down in Atlantic Beach. Photos and videos from bystanders show the Long Island waterspout making landfall at the tip of the peninsula, just across a narrow inlet from Far Rockaway, between 6:30 and 7 p.m. It hit the Sun and Surf and Silver Point beach clubs, causing “significant damage” to numerous cabanas and buildings, according to the clubs’ websites. Both facilities will be temporarily closed as they work with local authorities to assess the situation, the clubs said.
Another circulation about a mile east may have spawned a waterspout that moved shoreward in the Atlantic Beach and the Five Towns area of southern Nassau, the NWS said. But no damage had been reported as of early Friday morning.
Meteorologist Matthew Wunsch from the National Weather Service said Thursday night’s intense storms provided the perfect ingredients for the weather phenomenon, which is unusual but not totally unheard of across Long Island’s south shore.
“There was a pretty potent, dynamic system that was moving through the area,” Wunsch said.
The most significant factor is instability in the atmosphere, Wunsch said. As abrupt changes in wind speed and direction mixed with several developed thunderstorms, moisture and low cloud heights, they created a water spout; once a water spout moves onshore, it is officially classified as a tornado.
Wunsch said the extent of the damage to Atlantic Beach and nearby areas was still being investigated. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
“ We will be out there, surveying the area today to get details on the exact specifics of it,” he said.
While water spouts do form off the south shore of Long Island almost every year, Wunsch said it is uncommon for them to move onshore and become full-fledged tornadoes, because the conditions on land become less conducive to the force they need to sustain themselves.
According to the National Weather Service, the last time a tornado touched down in southeastern New York was in Suffolk County on Sept. 25, 2022. Before that, six tornadoes were reported on Long Island during the same stormy day on Nov. 13, 2021. No one was killed or injured by any of them, according to the NWS.
Wunsch said Thursday evening’s storms brought significant flooding to northeast New Jersey and other parts of the New York City metro area, with 4 to 5 inches of rain reported in some concentrated areas.
NYPD officials said there were no deaths or significant injuries related to the storms.
Weather for Friday and the weekend is forecast to be much quieter, with some residual showers possible early Friday. The next chance of rain and thunderstorms will be Saturday afternoon into Sunday morning, with temperatures in the high 70s to low-80s.Temperatures on Sunday will rebound into the low 80s, according to the NWS.