afternoon everyone. I'm meteorologist Jeff Smith here in the Eyewitness News Weather Center tracking this wind event. We still have high wind warnings in effect right through six o'clock this evening. We've had some really high winds, especially Newark, right now sustained at 40 miles per hour. So we're talking about tropical storm-force winds at Newark, where you're gusting up to 51 miles per hour right now. Recently had a wind gust of 56 miles per hour on the island at Islip. So it's an accurate weather alert. Winds can gust to 55 miles per hour and even a little bit higher than that through this afternoon. The potential to bring down trees and power lines out there. We've already had a lot of reports of power outages. Also watch for, in this case, flying debris and structural damage. The winds are that high out there. If you get 55 to 60 mile-per-hour gusts, they're most likely New York City, Long Island, down the Jersey Shore, into coastal southwestern areas of Connecticut. We're

gonna be continuing coverage on our digital set on ABC 7 and why also meteorologist Lee Goldberg with much more coming up on Eyewitness News first at four all last week we had newscasters from around the country playing our hey good afternoon everyone from the Eyewitness News Weather Center. I'm meteorologist Jeff Smith with this AccuWeather alert. The high wind warnings continue through 6 o'clock this evening. We've really had some high gusts out there, upwards of close to 60 miles per hour across a good chunk of the area. These are all the storm reports. We're talking wind-damaged trees, downed power lines, down a lot of power outages recorded, reported across the area. Newark had a wind gust of 59 miles per hour a little while ago. LaGuardia 58 miles per hour. And by the way, both of those airports have had delays up to about three and a half hours. No big surprise with winds that gusty. Farmingdale on the island about a 55 mile-per-hour gust.

even White Plains closing in at 50. So right now, at this moment, Newark has a sustained wind of 40. Now, to be tropical storm-force, you have to have sustained winds of 39 or higher. So we're talking about tropical storm-force winds at Newark, gusting up to 51 miles per hour. They're gusting about 40 miles per hour at LaGuardia, 56 miles per hour recent gust at Islip on the island. So these winds really show no signs of tapering off just yet. I think they'll gradually diminish though overnight tonight. Why so windy? Big strong area of low pressure up over the St. Lawrence Valley. It's almost like a vacuum, like a void in the atmosphere, and all this air is coming in to replace that void, and that happens in the form of wind across the tri-state on the backside of the system. So definitely one thing you want to keep in mind if you're driving, say, a high-profile vehicle like an SUV, a big

SUV or a van. It's gonna be very difficult, especially going across bridges and overpasses where you have a crosswind out there. So, you want to keep a really tight grip on the steering wheel. There's gonna be tree damage, of course. We've already had that. We've already had power outages, and we've already had flight delays across the area. That will continue through the afternoon where the winds can gust up to 55 miles per hour right through the daylight hours of today. And that's why that high wind warning lasts right through 6:00 p.m. The potential there to bring down trees and power lines, and the wind is so high that you gotta watch for flying debris and even some structural damage out there. And you start getting winds up around 60 miles per hour. That's where you gotta walk.

High Wind Warning: Jeff Smith's update

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