High Wind — Tolland, Connecticut

2012-10-29 · Tolland, Connecticut

Event narrative

In Coventry, numerous roads were blocked by downed trees. In Mansfield, a 90 year old woman was killed when a tree fell on her and two of her family members on West Highland Road. They were walking to a neighbor's house who still had electricity after they lost power. The other two victims (a male and a female) were seriously injured.

Wider weather episode

Sandy, a hybrid storm with both tropical and extra-tropical characteristics, brought high winds and coastal flooding to southern New England. Easterly winds gusted to 50 to 60 mph for interior southern New England; 55 to 65 mph along the eastern Massachusetts coast and along the I-95 corridor in southeast Massachusetts and Rhode Island; and 70 to 80 mph along the southeast Massachusetts and Rhode Island coasts. A few higher higher gusts occurred along the Rhode Island coast. A severe thunderstorm embedded in an outer band associated with Sandy produced wind gusts to 90 mph and concentrated damage in Wareham early Tuesday evening,

a day after the center of Sandy had moved into New Jersey. In general, moderate coastal flooding occurred along the Massachusetts coastline, and major coastal flooding impacted the Rhode Island coastline. The storm surge was generally 2.5 to 4.5 feet along the east coast of Massachusetts, but peaked late Monday afternoon in between high tide cycles. Seas built to between 20 and 25 feet Monday afternoon and evening just off the Massachusetts east coast. Along the south coast, the storm surge was 4 to 6 feet and seas from 30 to a little over 35 feet were observed in the outer coastal waters. The very large waves on top of the storm surge caused destructive coastal flooding along stretches of the Rhode Island exposed south coast.

Sandy grew into a hurricane over the southwest Caribbean and then headed north across Jamaica, Cuba, and the Bahamas. As Sandy headed north of the Bahamas, the storm interacted with a vigorous weather system moving west to east across the United States and began to take on a hybrid structure. Strong high pressure over southeast Canada helped with the expansion of the strong winds well north of the center of Sandy. In essence, Sandy retained the structure of a hurricane near its center (until shortly before landfall) while taking on more of an extra-tropical cyclone configuration well away from the center. Sandy's track was unusual. The storm headed northeast and then north across the western Atlantic and then sharply turned to the west to make landfall near Atlantic City, NJ during Monday evening. Sandy subsequently weakened and moved west across southern Pennsylvania on Tuesday before turning north and heading across western New York state into Quebec during Tuesday night and Wednesday.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 416731. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.