LOOK OUT! WET, HEAVY SNOW FELLS TREE ON 85TH

A large section of a tree crashed down on top of a sedan on Monday on West 85th street, causing police to close the street.

Lisa Henricksson sent us the photo above and the description below.

“Returning from a walk in Central Park, I noticed the police blocking off W, 85th between Columbus and Amsterdam. As I got closer to the corner @ Amsterdam, I saw that a large branch of this tree had broken off and fallen on this car. This a wetter, heavier snow than the last one, and branches are more likely to fall under its weight.”

Wet snow can prove particularly treacherous, and not just because it’s slippery. Heavy sodden snow can often put significant pressure on branches, causing them to snap off.

In 2011, more than 1,000 Central Park sustained damage in a snowstorm, partly because the snow was wet (the temperature wasn’t even below freezing). In 2010, a man was killed in Central Park after a branch fell on him after a particularly slushy snowfall: “The American elm tree it fell from, the witness said, was massive, perhaps 80 feet high, and was bowed beneath the weight of several inches of wet snow.”