Tornado Touched Down On LI Sunday Night, NWS Confirms

LONG ISLAND, NY — Yes, a tornado did touch down in Mattituck Sunday night, according to the National Weather Service.

Heavy winds and rain slammed parts of Long Island Sunday night and, according to Vinny Vozzolo of the NWS office in Upton, an EFO, or the weakest tornado on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, with winds of 65 to 85 miles per hour, touched down in Mattituck at 11:17 p.m.

According to Vozzolo, about an inch of rain fell. The tornado was caused by "instability" as a cold front moved through. "The wind shear helped with the rotation for the tornado," he said.

Jay Engle, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Upton, added: "There was a bit of instability in the late afternoon and evening that triggered those storms. We did have the risk of severe weather in the forecast," he said.

Residents turned to social media to describe the experience. "I was woken up by a crazy loud bang," Emilie Powers of Riverhead wrote. "Trees were falling, thunder, lightning, and wind. That was a fast, windy, heavy rainstorm like I've never seen before. It did so much damage. My yard is a mess and a huge tree fell onto my deck, with another one by my pool house. I can't image what it's going to look like in the morning sunlight."

If you have photos of the damage caused by Sunday night's storm, send them to Lisa.Finn@patch.com.