Severe thunderstorms and blasting winds pummeled the tri-state Tuesday afternoon, downing trees and knocking out power, ripping bricks off buildings, and in Manhattan, sweeping a glass table off a high-rise balcony and sending it plunging 22 stories, authorities say.
Powerful bands of rain and wind began pushing their way into New Jersey, New York and Connecticut Tuesday afternoon, putting a serious damper on temperatures more than 50 degrees above the record-shattering lows observed across the region on Valentine's Day.
The quick-moving storm dropped heavy rains along with powerful wind gusts above 40 mph through the evening commute. More than 1 inch of rain was recorded in Central Park Tuesday after just a few hours of rain. The wet weather caused street flooding in a few areas as well.
Winds in excess of 60 mph were reported just east of the Delaware River, Storm Team 4 said. The winds were moving east at 45 mph and hit northern New Jersey by mid-afternoon.
The gusts were blamed for sending bricks from an Upper West Side building facade onto the street below, and for ripping an unsecured glass table from a balcony in the Garment District, where it hit two pedestrians on the sidewalk, officials said.
Meanwhile, In New Jersey, the winds uprooted a tree and sent it toppling into a home in Englewood. No one was injured in that incident.
Power outages were reported across the tri-state by early evening: nearly 15,000 customers were without power in each New Jersey and Long Island, and Con Edison was reporting over 1,000 customers without power in New York City, especially in Brooklyn and Queens. Westchester, Orange and Rockland counties were also reporting outages.
Commuters and straphangers experienced some evening delays, and airport delays were widespread. There could be some localized flooding in places with poor drainage. In all, about 1 ½ inches of rain was expected to fall Tuesday.
The rainstorm moved out of the area by the evening, taking the warmest weather we’ll see this week with it. Temperatures will drop a little overnight into Wednesday. All the rain from the day before could ice over Wednesday morning as temperatures plummet down to the low 30s, Storm Team 4 says.
Wednesday and Thursday will be breezy and fairly warm. The high on Wednesday is 45 degrees and the high on Thursday is 39. Friday will be similar to Thursday, with some clouds developing.
The warm weather returns this weekend, with highs in the low to mid 50s under cloudy skies. Some rain is possible Saturday, Storm Team 4 says.
Local
The wet, warmer weather is a far cry from the dry, bone-chilling weather that shattered records in our area Valentine’s Day weekend at Central Park, Islip, Bridgeport and John F. Kennedy International Airport.
In Central Park, the mercury dipped to 1 degree below zero on Sunday morning — the lowest Feb. 14 temperature since record-keeping began in the 1860s. The previous record, set in 1916, was 2 degrees.
It was also the coldest New York City day in more than twenty years. Jan. 27, 1994, was the last time that metro temperatures sank to zero or below. It was the coldest February day since 1962.
