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WPRI 12 News
NWS: Tornado tore though parts of RI, Mass.
By Shaun Towne,
4 days ago
LINCOLN, R.I. (WPRI) — Strong storms hit Southern New England overnight, and we’ve now learned that a tornado was to blame for some of the damage left behind.
The National Weather Service (NWS) confirmed Thursday that an EF-1 tornado touched down at 11:23 p.m. in the area of Breakneck Hill Road in Lincoln. It had a maximum width of about 100 yards and winds of up to 100 mph.
The tornado traveled more than four miles through Cumberland, taking down trees, limbs and power lines, before it lifted around 11:30 p.m. near Cushman Road in North Attleboro.
NWS Meteorologist Bryce Williams told 12 News that the storm was “packing a punch.”
He said the direction that trees fall can help determine whether there was a tornado.
“If they’re laying in the same direction, that can often tell us that we’re looking at straight-line wind damage, something from like a microburst oftentimes,” Williams explained.
“Whereas if we see trees that are laid in all different directions or in a circular pattern … that oftentimes will signify a tornado,” he added. “And that’s what we saw a lot today on our survey.”
Todd Manni, who directs the Emergency Management Agency in Smithfield, said he also looked at the trees during his survey.
“If you notice all these trees are all live, healthy trees, they’re not dead. Goes to show how strong the wind really was,” Manni said.
As long as it’s safe to do so, send your storm pics to 12 News via Report It!
The storm knocked out power to thousands of homes and businesses. Our Power Outage Database shows about 300 Rhode Island Energy customers were still without power as of 11 a.m. Friday, while another 230 were out in Massachusetts.
The city of East Providence announced that storm debris such as leaves and branches can be dropped off at the Forbes Street compost site from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, Monday and Tuesday.
Tornado and Severe Thunderstorm warnings were in effect during the storm.
Last August, an EF-2 tornado with winds of 115 mph touched down in Scituate and traveled more than nine miles through Johnston and North Providence. During that same storm, weaker tornadoes hit Attleboro, Mansfield, Weymouth and Stoughton, Massachusetts, as well as Scotland, Connecticut.
The following month, two EF-1 tornadoes landed in Glocester and Killingly and an EF-0 briefly touched down in North Attleboro.
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