New York City's 100-degree heat finally exploded yesterday in a spectacular rainstorm that spawned "ground-shaking" thunder, hail, high winds—and spectacular photographs that ricocheted across the Twitterverse and Facebook like lightning itself. Photos of massive clouds, quarter-size hailstones, drenched city streets, and a flooded Penn Station joined photos from storm-wracked Atlanta and Washington, DC. A much-shared spectacular shot of the city nearly consumed by a massive rain funnel was shot by former NFL player Dhani Jones as he flew 10,000 feet above Queens.
"This is some storm!" gushed Gothamist. "We've got thunder, lightning, rain, we've got total darkness in Times Square, and there's even been a cameo by hail." Two women were injured in New York; one was struck by lightning, another by a tree branch. A severe weather warning remained in effect until later in the night. For more shots of the storm, check out Gothamist here and the New York Daily News. (More Twitter stories.)