A small tornado packing 85-mph winds touched down in Ronkonkoma during a severe thunderstorm late Tuesday night, National Weather Service officials said.
The twister was rated an EF0, the lowest on the tornado-rating scale that ranks the severity of tornadoes, the agency said in its preliminary review of the event. Its path was 200 yards wide and it traveled 400 yards. No injuries were reported.
“Damage was confined largely to Iroquois Street, Seneca Street, and Ontario Street along Mohican Avenue in Ronkonkoma,” the agency said in a statement. “Numerous homes sustained damage to siding, shutters and outdoor furniture. Trees have visibly sheered tops,and at least two or three trees were downed upon cars.”
The tornado came while Long Island was under a severe thunderstorm warning. Areas north of LI were under tornado warnings, but the Island was not at the time.
The last time a tornado hit Long Island was in 2016, when another small tornado hit Mattituck, although a twister touched down in Whitestone, Queens several months ago.
And the last tornado to hit LI before the Mattituck twister was four years before that, in 2012. That tornado traveled from Great River to Lake Ronkonkoma.
