Tri-State Under Tornado Watch

Bloomberg

The New York City area and parts of the Northeast from Pennsylvania to Maine are under a tornado watch until 8 p.m. as severe thunderstorms move through the region, the National Weather Service said.

“We’re expecting tornadoes, hail up to 2 inches in diameter, thunderstorm wind gusts up to 70 miles an hour and dangerous lightning,” Lauren Nash, an agency meteorologist in Upton, New York, said in a telephone interview. “We have a cold front out to the west and another disturbance ahead of that cold front that is going to fire up these storms.”

Tornadoes have killed more than 500 people across the U.S. this year, including at least 120 in Joplin, Missouri, last week in one of the deadliest storms in the nation’s history. The tornadoes have destroyed at least $3 billion to $6.5 billion of insured property, said Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute in New York.

A tornado watch is issued when atmospheric conditions are favorable for the formation of the storms. A warning is issued when severe weather conditions are imminent, according to the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management.