EF0 tornado in Litchfield County, Connecticut

Tornado June 21, 2024 · Litchfield County, Connecticut

EF0

Rating

2.0 mi

Path length

250 yd

Path width

$15K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 250 yards (0.14 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A tornado touched down along Spring Hill Road in Harwinton, CT on June 21, 2024 just before 5 PM. The tornado moved in a general southeast direction, but the path was curved and the tornado moved almost southward for a period before turning eastward. The tornado ended along Route 4 near the Harwinton Ambulance station. Most of the damage consisted of broken tree limbs with some uprooted trees. Damage was sporadic along the path. Video of the tornado was posted to social media by the general public.

The wider storm

June 21, 2024 was the fourth day in the stretch of hot, humid conditions. Heat index (or feels like temperatures) reached between 95 and 104 degrees across Litchfield County.

A lingering surface trough and weak cold front tracked southward through northwest Connecticut on June 21. Warm, moist antecedent conditions aided in providing a fairly unstable environment and requisite values of several severe weather parameters working in tandem with the aforementioned forcing mechanisms drove scattered severe thunderstorms in Litchfield County.

Severe thunderstorms resulted in several reports of downed trees. Additionally, one severe thunderstorm produced a weak, EF0 tornado that touched down in the town of Harwinton. The tornado touched down along Spring Hill Road just before 5 PM and followed along a path of about 2 miles. With maximum estimated wind speeds of 85 mph and a path width of 250 yards, extensive tree damage was sustained with limbs broken and trees uprooted sporadically along the path. An estimated $15000 in tree damage was sustained.

Began near Harwinton (41.7800, -73.0700).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1195137. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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