Emergency officials say they have been engaged in real-time monitoring of the storm moving through New York City with the National Weather Service, New Year's Eve event planners, and the Times Square Alliance at a command center in the area, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.
Each time a lightning strike appeared to be within 12 miles of Times Square, they convened a meeting to take a closer look but the more dangerous “concentrated lightning clusters” that would have triggered a shutdown of the ball drop event, according to their plan - were further south and east of the city, those sources tell News 4.
There were a couple lightning strikes in vicinity of Times Square and thunder could be heard in the area.
Ultimately, the decision is up to the event producers who have been in the command center with city officials to monitor the radar.
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The worst of the rain and downpours had moved out of the city by 11:15 p.m., though rain showers were still occurring on Long Island and in Fairfield County, Connecticut, according to Storm Team 4 Meteorologist Matt Brickman.
Almost a half inch of rain fell in New York City on Tuesday evening.
