There Was A Second Vermont Tornado On July 18 After All

 It turns out the rotating storm that produced an EF-1 tornado in Addison, Vermont on July 18 also created a second twister a little to the northeast in Waltham, Vermont.   

Screen grab from video by Chas Eller of a weak tornado
in Waltham, Vermont on July 19. It was the second
of two tornadoes a rotating storm produced in 
Addison County that day. This second tornado 
caused little damage and was more beautiful than anything else.

The National Weather Service office in South Burlington on Tuesday confirmed the EF-0 tornado based largely on video taken by Chas Eller and posted on Twitter by Ben Frechette. Tornado strength is categorized on a scale of zero to five, with zero being the weakest.

This was a weak tornado, and based on Eller's video, it was more beautiful than harmful. 

Officially,  the tornado had top winds of 70 mph, was on the ground for just two minutes, with a path length of 0.7 miles and a width of 25 yards. It caused minor tree damage. Your basic severe thunderstorm would normally cause more damage than that. 

But as I said, the video is gorgeous.   I don't mean to diminish the danger from even a weak tornado, but still you can appreciate them, especially this one. 

In the video the upper portion of the funnel is dark, as is the foreground under the thickest portion of the storm.  But the picturesque Champlain Valley farmland in the background glows a soft green in the rain and fog, while the cloudy sky to the left has a peach hue due to haze and a low sun angle.

The part of the funnel that periodically touches the ground takes on a mix of the light gray of the background and the peach hue of the hazy evening.  Toward the end, the tornado startles a murder of crows, some of which seem to get briefly caught up in the tornado's circulation. 

When I first reported on this tornado, I wondered if there was a second tornado that day in southeastern Vermont, given some pretty strong rotation detected radar over Marlboro and West Brattleboro.  However, that southeastern Vermont circulation remained aloft, so there was no twister there. 

But this rotating storm in Addison County did manage to produce two tornadoes.

Of course nowadays, everybody has a camera on their phones, which they carry with them all the time. I actually doubt anybody would have noticed the Waltham tornado without Eller's good eye and presence of mind to take video.

This could be the beginning of an uptick in confirmed tornado reports in Vermont. Not necessarily because there are more tornadoes, but because the chances of somebody seeing and recording them has increased. 

Tomorrow, there is some risk of some scattered strong to severe thunderstorms over Vermont.  It doesn't look like it will be a widespread outbreak, and tornadoes are NOT expected.