A Rare Tornado Watch in Manhattan Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 6, 5:35AM EST · Published Apr 15, 5:35AM EDT

A Rare Tornado Watch in Manhattan Today — © NOAA Photo Library / Flickr

At 1:05 a.m., the National Weather Service issued a Tornado Watch for Manhattan as lightning brightened normally dark skies, which are usually illuminated by the city’s lights. The watch was scheduled to last until 7 a.m. The number of lightning strikes in the early hours reached into the dozens.

A Tornado Watch, as defined by the National Weather Service, is posted when weather conditions are such that they could trigger tornadoes. They cover a specific geographic area and also are posted for a specific period. This is in contrast to the other Weather Service designation for tornadoes, a Tornado Warning. A warning means that one or more tornadoes have been captured on local radar.

A watch can cover a very broad area. The Weather Service reports under a watch:

Tornadoes are possible in and near the watch area. Review and discuss your emergency plans and check supplies and your safe room. Be ready to act quickly if a warning is issued or you suspect a tornado is approaching. Acting early helps to save lives! Watches are issued by the Storm Prediction Center for counties where tornadoes may occur. The watch area is typically large, covering numerous counties or even states.

New York State ranks 30th on the list of the states with the most tornadoes.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.