Tornado Warning Issued for New York City, Later Downgraded

The National Weather Service (NWS) sent out a tornado warning Tuesday afternoon for Manhattan and The Bronx in New York City, but it was later downgraded to a severe thunderstorm warning.

Strong winds and heavy rains swept through the area. It’s not clear if a tornado actually touched down in the city.

“Immediately take shelter on lower floors. Stay away from windows,” read a warning from New York City’s Emergency Management alert system.

OKX issues Tornado Warning for Bronx, Nassau, New York (Manhattan), Westchester [NY] till 3:00 PM EDT https://t.co/72rRBJPyVx

— NWS New York NY (@NWSNewYorkNY) April 21, 2020

.@NWSNewYorkNY Tornado Warning issued for Manhattan, The Bronx: 2:30 PM to 3:00 PM on 4/21. Immediately take shelter on lower floors. Stay away from windows. https://t.co/t918yhlx8z. Multilingual and ASL Link: https://t.co/blJLuS6ozW.

— NYCEM – Notify NYC (@NotifyNYC) April 21, 2020

The warning also covered Nassau and Westchester counties, and it was in effect from 2:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET

A severe thunderstorm warning remained in effect until 3:45 p.m. for Brooklyn and Queens.

New York City is currently the U.S. COVID-19 epicenter.