Trick play: Statue of Liberty tornado photo

* Warmth stays around: Full Forecast | High ragweed pollen *

Turns out this photograph is from 1976, not yesterday. Courtesy National Weather Service.

Twitter has become an invaluable tool for reporters trying to stay on top of a story. But as the Huffington Post detailed last evening, Twitter can also trip a reporter up, especially in the heat of a breaking story.

We don't know yet if the severe and deadly storm that blew through New York City yesterday included a tornado -- the National Weather Service plans to make that assessment today. We do know, however, that a photograph (pulled from Twitter) of a tornado near the Statue of Liberty is not from yesterday, as a TIME.com story originally indicated, but rather from 1976.

The Huffington Post's Craig Kanalley has the full break down of TIME's oopsy-daisy.

Also, while the above photo is real (just old), at least according to the National Weather Service, CWG's Steve Tracton explored in a 2008 post -- "Photoshopping the Weather" -- the difficulty of verifying the authenticity of weather photos in the age of digital photography.