Tornado Watch Issued For Long Island

The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch Saturday afternoon for Long Island and all of the Metropolitan New York area.

Weather forecasters said the tornado watch is in effect for Long Island Sound southward to Jones Beach Inlet, westward to New York Harbor and eastward to Gardiners Bay.

There are preliminary reports that a possible tornado touched down in Brooklyn this morning near the Belt Parkway at Carnarsie, the New York Daily News reported.

The NWS is forecasting a potentially "significant damaging wind event" across much of the northeastern U.S. on Saturday. The alert means that atmospheric conditions pose a moderate risk of producing severe thunderstorms in Nassau County, bringing damaging winds, heavy rain and spawning possible tornadoes.

At 4 p.m., the storm system was clearly visible by radar as a line of storms stretching from Scranton, Pa., to Albany approaching the Hudson Valley from the west. The watch remains in effect at least until 9 p.m.

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The alert was issued from the northern Mid-Atlantic region into New England. The likely arrival of these storms is during the afternoon and evening hours, the NWS said.

Experts are monitoring the storm's development; they recommend basic precautions be taken now, such as removing patio furniture from outdoors and listening to media alerts.

This is a breaking story; Patch will have updates throughout the afternoon.