EF1 tornado, Merrow to Mansfield Depot, Connecticut, September 4, 2019

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

EF1

Date

September 4, 2019

Touchdown

4:40 PM CDT (21:40 UTC)

Lifted

4:49 PM CDT (21:49 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

3.2 miles (5.1 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$25,000

County

Not recorded

Touchdown point

41.828, -72.357

Lift-off point

41.799, -72.297

Record number

1909041540-01

A cold front pushed through southern New England in the evening. It was preceded by a strong upper level short wave, which tapped very unstable air to produce severe thunderstorms in CT and MA. An EF-1 tornado occurred in Tolland County in the late afternoon.

An EF-1 tornado moved through a portion of Tolland County between 540 and 549 PM EDT (440 and 449 PM EST), with maximum estimated wind speeds of 85-90 mph. The tornado traveled in a southeast direction and had a discontinuous path. It first touched down on North River Road in Coventry, then went through the Skungamaug River Golf Club on Folly Lane (where it damaged many trees). A tree and wires were down on Merrow Road. It then lifted before touching down again near Brigham Tavern Road, where it then crossed U.S. Route 44 near Depot Road in Mansfield. The tornado lifted after going across a corn field near the intersection of Plains Road and Stafford Road (Route 32). The majority of the damage was to trees. Only very minor damage to buildings was noted, with a sign at a daycare center on Depot Road blown over. Scattered branches and wires were downed on Ravine Road, just beyond where the tornado had lifted.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

18 minutes of warning. NWS BOX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:22 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 16:56 UTC and running to 00:03 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

The Boston radar (KBOX), 100 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:42 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2019 tornado in ConnecticutEvery tornado in Connecticut since 1950Warnings in force in Connecticut nowThe forecast where you are

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.