Northeast Severe Thunderstorm Videos, Maps
The line of thunderstorms that passed through Pennsylvania and Connecticut yesterday made for some impressive amateur videos once again... here's a YouTube video from the Phillies game yesterday (200,000 lost power in Philadelphia).
Here's another one (watch the tarp go flying at about 1:20):
The radar looked about like this when the super storm swept in:
I believe the white color on our Level II radar above indicates extreme precipitation above 75 dBZ which meteorologists younger than me would probably describe as "sick" (see also Level III showing 73 dBZ with tornadic vortex signature from RadarPlus). The storm had Severe Thunderstorm Warnings (yellow) in its path and trailed many wind reports behind it, wreaking havoc all the way to the shore:
Bridgeport Connecticut also took it on the chin with a big storm. Don't give up on this video, you have to watch it all the way through!
That was intense! A video shot from the ground is also available but you can't see much in it. Radar shortly afterwards...
Of course, nearly every storm video yesterday claimed "Tornado" because the public doesn't understand the similarity between tornadoes and straight-line winds, as far as damage and intensity, but in the scheme of things tornadoes are quite rare and it will take National Weather Service storm surveys today to be sure. In the case of the Bridgeport storm, a Tornado Warning (red) was issued, but neither storm resulted in any Skywarn Spotter reports of a tornado.
The line of storms was long and there are many other reports, for example this one from the Pennsylvania Storm Chasers Facebook Group south of Reading, PA:
This is what it looked like in New York City. When it got down to Delaware, Hunter Outten took these pictures:
Here's a list of wind gusts, impressive for this area especially considering most of these are official airport readings:
Bridgeport, CT: 78 mph
Drexel Hill, DE: 76 mph
Philadelphia, PA: 75 mph
New Castle, DE: 70 mph
Lancaster, PA: 70 mph
