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Hail Hits Westchester, Causes Havoc
By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 8, 2009
Modified Jul 8, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 8, 2009
Modified Jul 8, 2009
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Last night, heavy storms and hail hit Westchester County, downing trees and utility poles and causing power outages to 17,000 customers. The downed power lines also prompted car fires. A Yonkers Fire Department official told 1010WINS, "Possibly a tornado came through the city...the northwest section...it was just devastating...trees and wires down...the amount of hail was unbelievable." (Reports of a tornado are still being confirmed.) WCBS 2 reports, "The dime-sized hail covered the roads in many areas across the city, posing as snow in July... The bizzare weather scene will most certainly cause problems for Wednesday's commute." According to Con Ed, Yonkers and Mount Vernon suffered the most outages while Bronxville, New Rochelle and Eastchester were also affected. Service may not be restored until later this afternoon. According to USA Today, "Hail forms when strong currents of rising air, known as updrafts, carry water droplets high enough in a thunderstorm for the water droplets to freeze... While hailstones are ice, hail is mostly a spring and summer phenomena because the strong thunderstorms needed to produce hail are much more common during warm weather."
Tagged
downed trees
hail
power outage
weather
westchester
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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