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August 7, 2012

NWS: Microburst, not tornado, hit Sidney

A National Weather Service team investigating a severe storm in Sidney said Monday there was a microburst Sunday night, not a tornado.

Downburst winds of up to 85 mph hit the town of Sidney at about 6 p.m., meteorologists said. The NWS said that although still and video images from Sunday show a lowering storm cloud that rotates, damage on the ground was consistent with straight-line winds.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or major damage after the storm, The Associated Press said.

"It took a lot of trees down," said Richard Bell, director of emergency services for Delaware County. A section of county Route 4 was closed for part of Monday while town and county crews cleared debris, he said.

In a preliminary report, the NWS in Binghamton said the microburst had a path width of 0.4 miles and a length of 1 mile.

The path of wind damage began west of state Route 8 on Thorpe Road in Sidney, and three large trees were uprooted. A large swath of trees was blown down along and north of county Route 4, just east of Route 8 in an area that can be seen from Interstate 88 near the Route 8 exit.

In the damaged area, trees fell onto one house, the report said, and another house lost about 15 percent of its shingles.

The violent weather comes less than two weeks after a tornado ripped through the Southern Tier city of Elmira.

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