Extreme heat and humidity, combined with strong winds aloft to spark a deadly round of widespread severe thunderstorms in the eastern U.S. on Tuesday. The storms left five dead, and nearly 200,000 people remained without power on Wednesday.
Four of the deaths occurred in the rural New York town of Smithfield, which is located between Syracuse and Utica. At least four homes were flattened, and one was reportedly thrown into another home, while many others were damaged. The National Weather Service is sending a storm damage survey team on Wednesday to determine if a tornado touched down there.
There was also widespread damage in the towns of Sullivan and Lenox, New York. A severe thunderstorm warning was in effect at the time of the possible tornado, but not a tornado warning.
The severe storms were not limited to New York state. At one point, severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings stretched for about 500 miles, from south of Washington, D.C. to the New York-Canadian border.
Warnings mean severe conditions are expected within a short period of time, whereas watches mean that conditions are favorable for severe storms to form. The storms turned deadly in Maryland as well, where a child at a summer camp was killed by a falling tree as campers sought shelter from the fast-moving storms. Six other children were injured.
Surveying storm damage from tornado that touched down in Madison County last night: pic.twitter.com/KPER61TWf5
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) July 9, 2014
The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, had highlighted the elevated storm risk across Pennsylvania and New York State early on Tuesday, with forecasters predicting that a strong squall line of storms would form, capable of producing widespread damaging winds and isolated tornadoes.
That is exactly what took place, except the storms were more widespread than initially suggested, as the squall line struck heavily populated areas in the New York to Washington corridor, as well as northern New England, with damage reported in northern Vermont.
Several tornado reports were also noted in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Here's what the storms looked like as they moved through parts of New York:
As the storms moved out of the D.C. area, they produced a gorgeous rainbow.
The Mid-Atlantic and Northeast will still be very warm on Wednesday, but the severe storm threat will be far less, with only isolated storms expected as thousands wait for the power to be restored.
Recent climate studies have shown that as the climate continues to warm in the eastern U.S., the number of days with conditions conducive to severe thunderstorms will increase significantly. This is mainly because warm weather and abundant humidity are key factors for fueling severe thunderstorms, and climate change is both boosting summertime temperatures in much of the U.S. and adding water vapor to the atmosphere.
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