Saturday Chuck and I were in Manhattan and I took some pictures of the tornado damage which occurred on June 11th. A lot of clean up is already underway but there is still plenty of damage to see. Amazingly, the dealership below was open for business. They have already taken away the damaged cars and were in the process of bringing in new cars.
Most tornadoes only stay on the ground 2-3 minutes.
I have heard this was a F-3 or F-4 tornado. I am not sure what the official designation finally ended up being. I would guess F-2 or F-3 based on the damage I saw. For those of you who don't know, tornadoes are rated on the "Fujita Scale" which estimates wind speed based on the damage caused by the tornado. Below is the scale:F0 40-72 signboard damage, shallow rooted trees uplifted
F1 73-112 glass breaks at about 74mph, autos blown off road, trees uprooted
F2 113-157 boxcars overturned
F3 158-206 cars thrown
F4 207-260 houses leveled
F5 261-318 incredible damage
F6 319 - ? inconceivable
The scale was slightly revised this February but is still basically the same as the above. The size of the tornado has nothing to do with it's intensity. A large tornado can be a weak F1 and a small tornado can be a F5. It breaks down this way:
74% of all tornadoes are F0 or F1
25% of all tornadoes are F2 or F3
Only 1% of all tornadoes are F4 or F5 rated
The most tornadoes occur in May. The deadliest month for tornadoes is April.
About 1,200 tornadoes occur annually. There are around 65 deaths annually attributed to tornadoes. 
The tornado tore through this mini storage unit on the West side of Manhattan.
Your chances of dying in a tornado are 1 in 60,000.
For reference, here are your chances of dying of other causes:
lightning strike 1 in 83,930
flood 1 in 30,000 (unless you live in Iowa)
legal execution 1 in 58,618 (you have a higher chance of being legally
executed than killed by a tornado!)
assault by firearm 1 in 325
suicide 1 in 121
car accident 1 in 100
stroke 1 in 7
cancer 1 in 7
heart disease 1 in 5
I just read the first symptom most people experience that indicates they have heart disease is: death.
The "average" tornado is 500 foot across and stays on the ground for 5 miles.
The year 2004 produced the most tornadoes ever recorded: 1,817. 
Scientists say global warming does not cause or increase the number of tornadoes however, an active winter storm season usually predicts lots of tornadoes.
Objects are rarely "sucked up" into a tornado rather they are blown sideways by the wind.
The tornado blew out all the windows on this car.
Inside the car was coated with insulation and debris.
I took this sunset shot on the way home June 21st. The picture doesn't do the sunset justice. Since the tornado occurred at 11pm, there is little video of the actual tornado which was wrapped in rain. However, here are some more storm damage pictures from Manhattan:
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