Weather experts: City struck by two tornadoes Thursday

Packing wind speeds of up to 125 mph, two tornadoes and a macroburst blew across Brooklyn and Queens Thursday, the National Weather Service said Friday.

The first tornado, with a maximum wind speed of 80 mph, touched Park Slope at 5:33 p.m. and traveled at least two miles.

Nine minutes later, a second tornado swept through the Flushing and Bayside neighborhoods, this one traveled at least four miles and had winds of up to 100 mph. It was this tornado, the weather service said, that caused the death of a Pennsylvania woman who was in her car on the Grand Central Parkway.

At 5:40 p.m., a macroburst, 5 miles wide, 8 miles long, left a trail of devastation in Middle Village and Forest Hills, said the National Weather Service.

"This is a spectacular event - to have two tornadoes and a macroburst at the same time," said meteorologist Brian Ciemnecki.

The macroburst, an intense gust of wind that pours down from a storm and pushes out when it reaches the ground, caused most of the damage Thursday, Ciemnecki said, because of its 125 mph winds and wide path.

"It covered a larger area," Ciemnecki said.

The announcement came after experts on foot and by helicopter Friday from the National Weather Service toured areas of Brooklyn and Queens ravaged by Thursday's fast moving storm to figure out exactly what caused the damage.

The experts toured at least two areas in an NYPD helicopter and then drove to Prospect Park in Brooklyn to study patterns of damaged trees and vegetation, said a weather service spokeswoman.

The tornado that touched down in Park Slope was classified as an EF0 and the one Queens was EF1, the stronger of the two.

The storm cut a 14 mile-long path stretching from Park Slope in Brooklyn to near Bayside, Queens.

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe estimated the storm destroyed more than 1,000 trees, snapping them and scattering them like bowling pins.

The last confirmed tornado in the city occurred on July 25 in the Bronx.

Telltale clues of tornadoes are patterns of the fallen trees, said meteorologist George Wright of Manhattan. Some trees will fall in one direction while others nearby will lie the opposite way, an indication of rotating winds, said Wright.

"One of the things you look for is a rotational signature, whether it is crops or trees," said Wright. "Thunderstorms produce straight line wind damage . . . a tornado will take trees and rotate them in circular patterns, which indicates rotation."

Doppler radar images from Thursday, said Wright, showed rotational winds. But while rotations can develop into a funnel cloud, they aren't classed as a tornado until the funnel touches the ground, he said.

Following in the wake of Thursday's storm will be the residual effects of hurricanes Igor and Julia, which are making their way up the Atlantic Ocean more than 1,000 miles off the coast.

Swells of 6 feet to 8 feet are forecast for ocean beaches, forecasters said.

There's also a high risk of rip currents and a small craft warning.

With Stacey Altherr