NWS confirms tornado touched down in northern Litchfield County
By Zoe Strothers, Mark Dixon, Connor Lewis and Evan Sobol
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COLEBROOK, Connecticut (WFSB) — The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado touched down in northern Litchfield County Thursday.
The tornado started at 6:35 p.m. in Norfolk about 2 miles south of Dennis Hill State Park, the NWS said.
The NWS said it ended around 6:50 p.m. in Colebrook.
It had a maximum width of 300 yards and traveled for 5 miles with peak wind speeds of 75 m.p.h., said the NWS.
The NWS rated it as an EF-0 tornado.
Nobody was injured.
The tornado caused fallen trees and broken branches.
State troopers said they got reports of heavy winds and trees down in the area of Millbrook Road and Route 44, at the Winsted line.
There were no road closures.
“A couple of barns along Pinney Street lost some siding and one of the barns had a door torn off,” said the NWS.
Channel 3 viewer Justin Parizo spotted the tornado while at Dennis Hill in Norfolk Thursday evening.
Parizo talked to Eyewitness News about what he saw.
He said when he saw that the storm was close, he decided to go to Dennis Hill with his girlfriend to watch the funnel cloud form.
“I mean, it was a once in a lifetime experience being in Connecticut, I mean, it was pretty incredible,” Parizo said. “We couldn’t believe what we were seeing.”
Others got a firsthand look from their backyard.
“It was spinning around. All the trees and leaves were blowing, sky turned black and then within a minute it was gone,” said John Meehan of Colebrooke.
John Meehan says next thing he knew, trees were down and power was out as the tornado ripped through.
Just a mile away, neighbors say they had no idea there even was a tornado.
“I found out about 5 minutes ago and it was literally that. ‘We had a tornado? Really? When?’” said Jason Mikolajcik of Colebrooke.
Jason, Ali, and their dog, Monkey, say they’re not stranger to tornados.
“We used to live in Texas and tornados happened a lot,” said Ali.
Not everyone has tornado experience. Channel 3 meteorologist Connor Lewis gives us some tips if you’re in a dangerous tornado situation.
“This is a good reminder that life threatening weather can occur in CT and there are steps to take to make sure that you’re being safe like staying in the interior of your home, listening to our weather reports, and really the best way to find out as quickly as possible is with our app or watching us on television,” said Lewis.
Channel 3 meteorologist Connor Lewis explained why a tornado warning was not issued Thursday evening.
Often rotating storms or severe thunderstorms in New England are shallow and short.
This part of the state is in a poor radar coverage area, meaning our radar will only be able to scan 6000 feet above the ground.
“It was kind of the perfect storm to get this one little cell in Litchfield county able to rotate and then with a lowering funnel cloud, there was a brief spin up tornado, that EF-0 tornado had wind gusts up to 75 miles per hour,” said meteorologist Connor Lewis.
Colebrook is between Albany, Boston, and New York’s radars.
Tornado vortex signatures are going to be much lower than 6000 feet so neither Channel 3 nor the National Weather Service would have been able to detect the tornado.
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