Dutchess Tornado Warning

[emt301 4]

It's not just you.. I was actually thinking the same thing about the weather. We've had more bad storms the past couple of weeks then we've had.. well really ever.. or as long as I can remember. We would get occasional storms here and there, sometimes bad ones, but never really this bad or so many bad ones in such a short time span. For me I like thunderstorms instead of just plain rain, so I enjoy it, but I wish no harm or property damage upon anyone.. and there has been alot of both the past couple of weeks and I feel bad for those affected and wish speedy recovery's and the best of luck on clean ups to everyone involved.

Speaking with the perspective of having been a weather forecaster for a number of years, these rounds of frequent springtime thunderstorms actually happen every few to several years here in the Hudson Valley, with quieter years in between. You probably don't recall (being the young guy that you are , but in May of 1998 we had a few rounds of severe thunderstorms, and the same thing happened again in May/June of either 2000 or 2001 (don't remember exactly which year, as I was at training in Salt Lake City both years, but my wife told me about the storms & I saw them on the weather channel). We had frequent storms once again during the Summer of either 2004 or 2005 (again, my memory is fading, but it was one of those 2 summers). Bottom line, after we go though a couple of "quiet" years, we get a busy year and it seems like the weather is getting much worse, but it really isn't. It's just cyclical.

Edited June 18, 2008 by emt301

[SRS131EMTFF 471]

We may be having a great number of thunderstorms this year, but at least they have been low on the damage and flooding scale. Just think about what is happening to the central states now or the floods we had in April and May last year.

[CAM502 6]

Photo taken by Lad41der from West Point during tonights storm

Man what a shot!!! When I used to work up in Croton we would see the occasional Waterspout on the Hudson but they never amounted to anything.

[50-65 205]

National Weather Service did confirm that is was a tornado that hit us in T/Newburgh Monday evening.

[Doc 11]

Is it me, or are the storms getting worse in this part of the Hudson Valley?

YES. Freakish weather seems to be getting worse in general. The "one day winter, next day summer" temperature shifts of 30 degrees is getting old too. I don't recall such quick and drastic temperature shifts in the past either. It's so random - and any forecast past three days is basically worthless. I'm hoping this is all selective perception at work, but looking at events in the mid-west among other larger unusual weather events, I think we're seeing a trend to greater unpredictability.