Rare Rhode Island/Massachusetts Tornadoes Friday Morning

Screenshot from a Tesla video on I-295 in
Rhode Island shows the tornado crossing the highway. 

 While I was a post for this blog thingy early Friday morning and noticed quite a thunderstorm complex coming into Connecticut.  

At the time the forecast included a very low but not zero chance of tornadoes in New England, all the way into Vermont.  I wrote that I thought the Green Mountain State was pretty safe from a twister, but I wondered about far southern New England.

Well, I was right to wonder, as it turns out.  

A pretty concentrated area of tornadoes hit Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts a bit later Friday morning, causing quite a lot of damage, but no super serious injuries.

The most impressive tornado took an off and on path through Scituate, Johnston, and North Providence, Rhode Island. It was an EF-2 with top winds of 115 mph.  It was the strongest Rhode Island tornado since August of 1986,

Dramatically, the tornado crossed I-295 in Rhode Island, lifted a car several feet in the air, turned it around and then slammed it back down on the highway. The woman driving the car was taken to a hospital but her injuries were reported to be relatively minor. 

One house directly struck by the tornado lost most of its roof shingles, had windows blown in and the front door was dislodged from its frame. Hundreds of trees were uprooted or snapped off.

There were at least three other tornadoes in that general area, according to the National Weather Service office in the Boston area.

 An EF-1 with 80 to 90 mph winds caused damage in North Attleborough and Mansfield, Massachusetts. Another, higher end EF-1 with winds of up to 110 mph caused roof and tree damage in Weymouth, Massachusetts. A weaker, brief tornado, an EF-0 with winds of up to 90 mph, caused a little more damage in Stoughton, Massachusetts.

Meteorologists will be investigating other damage in Scotland, Connecticut to determine whether yet another tornado touched down there. 

So, four, possibly five tornadoes in southern New England. Like I said the other day, it's almost as if we have another tornado alley in that region.  

Here in Vermont, the weather Friday stayed well-behaved.  I saw no reports of any severe weather.  Although one or two instances of flash flooding had been considered possible, I have no reports of any high water or washouts. 

Today might not be the nicest Saturday ever, with clouds and plenty of light showers around, especially north. It'll be a cool one, too, as temperatures will barely make it to the low 70s in the warmer spots and many places will stay in the 60s. 

Autumn is coming!