On the way to work today, Intel Chris walked past a tree that had been knocked down by the wind. It was a relatively puny tree, planted as part of some neighborhood landscaping. It sort of seemed like the similarly young trees around it were laughing at it, like it was drunk and fell over all of a sudden. But that young tree can take heart! Big, robust trees across Brooklyn and Queens were knocked over, too, today. According to the Times, wind gusts reached 50 mph and blew trees into power lines, cars, and houses in Richmond Hill, Briarwood, South Jamaica, and Rockaway in Queens, and in Williamsburg and Gravesend in Brooklyn. We are now officially adding Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan to that list of neighborhoods, even though the sapling in question didn't actually knock any houses or even power lines down. It did chip away a little at Intel Chris's heart, though — demonstrated by the fact that he decided to write a blog post, the goal of which was to make a tree feel better about itself.

Fierce Winds Topple Trees in Brooklyn and Queens [NYT]