A tornado came ashore on Long Island’s south shore Thursday evening, tearing through the Sun and Surf Beach Club in Atlantic Beach, Nassau County, and damaging or destroying about 50 of its one-story cabanas.
Key facts
- Where: Sun and Surf Beach Club, Atlantic Beach, Nassau County, Long Island
- When: Thursday evening, August 20, 2026; the tornado touched down at 6:50 p.m.
- Damage: about 50 of the club’s one-story cabanas damaged or destroyed
- On site: more than 100 guests were at the club at the time
- Injuries: one employee suffered a minor head injury and declined treatment; no other injuries and no deaths
- Context: the first confirmed tornado in Nassau County since 2021
- Also that evening: a separate tornado hit Dover, Delaware, damaging two hotels
Timeline
- 6:03–6:45 p.m. — National Weather Service issues three tornado warnings for Kent County, Delaware
- 6:18 p.m. — Tornado touches down in Dover, Delaware
- 6:30–7 p.m. — A separate waterspout comes ashore as a tornado in the Eastern Rockaways, Queens
- 6:44 p.m. — First tornado warning issued for southern Nassau County and Queens
- 6:49 p.m. — Second tornado warning issued for the same area
- 6:50 p.m. — Tornado touches down in Atlantic Beach, Nassau County
- Friday, August 21 (morning) — Nassau County’s state of emergency is lifted
- Friday, August 21 — Ground survey of the Atlantic Beach damage is carried out
What happened at the beach club
The twister formed as a waterspout over the ocean before moving onto land at the far west end of Atlantic Beach the evening of August 20, 2026. The National Weather Service later clarified that the tornado touched down at 6:50 p.m. The club had more than 100 guests on the property at the time.
The Inwood Fire Department, which responded to the scene, put the toll at about 50 cabanas damaged or destroyed. Fire Chief Josiyah Green said no one was trapped inside any of the cabanas and no one had to be rescued from them.
“Best I can call it is luck,” Green said. “Just by the grace of luck that a lot of people weren’t hurt here because this beach club is a very popular place during the summer.”
One employee suffered a minor head injury and declined medical treatment at the scene. No other injuries were reported, and no one died.
The National Weather Service’s Upton, New York office issued two separate tornado warnings for southern Nassau County and Queens that evening, one at 6:44 p.m. EDT and another just minutes later at 6:49 p.m., both set to expire at 7:15 p.m. Forecasters later confirmed the tornadic touchdown using radar data, video of the waterspout coming ashore, and reports of the damage it left behind. A full ground survey of the damage was carried out Friday, August 21.
Wider storm damage across Nassau County
The storm’s damage reached well past the beach club: it knocked down trees and power lines across Nassau County, flooded roads, and trapped drivers in their cars in Elmont and Valley Stream, and it tore the roof off a building in Stewart Manor. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said at a Friday morning news conference that first responders rescued the trapped drivers from the floodwaters.
A separate waterspout also came ashore as a tornado in the Eastern Rockaways in Queens during the same stretch of the storm, roughly between 6:30 and 7 p.m., though no damage was reported there.
Second tornado hits Dover, Delaware
The same regional storm system spawned a second, separately confirmed tornado more than 100 miles away in Dover, Delaware. The National Weather Service’s Mount Holly office described that twister, which touched down around 6:18 p.m., as “large and extremely dangerous.” It damaged two hotels near North DuPont Highway and Route 13, prompting Dover to declare its own city state of emergency. The Weather Service issued three separate tornado warnings for Kent County, Delaware, between about 6:03 and 6:45 p.m. No major injuries were reported in Dover either.
What happens next
Blakeman declared a county state of emergency after the storm and activated the county’s Emergency Operations Center. The declaration was lifted the following morning, Friday, August 21.
The Sun and Surf Beach Club and the neighboring Silver Point Beach Club will be temporarily closed until further notice, according to club management. No reopening date has been announced.
Officials said the Atlantic Beach touchdown was the first confirmed tornado in Nassau County since 2021. As of the most recent reporting, the Weather Service had not yet assigned a rating on the Enhanced Fujita scale to either the Atlantic Beach or Dover tornado, with damage surveys still being finalized.
Sources and further reading
- Tornado Warning issued August 20 at 6:49PM EDT until August 20 at 7:15PM EDT (Nassau, NY)
- Tornado Warning issued August 20 at 6:03/6:35/6:40PM EDT (Kent, DE)
- Tornado Warning issued August 20 at 6:44PM EDT until August 20 at 7:15PM EDT (Nassau/Queens, NY)
- Atlantic Beach Tornado (November 13, 2018) — reference/disambiguation only, unrelated event
- api.weather.gov
- NWS Alerts API — Tornado Warning, NY, Aug 20-22 2026
- Watches, warnings, and advisories for Delaware (Tornado Warning, 2026-08-20)