PROVIDENCE – The National Weather Service has confirmed that a single tornado cut a 9-mile path through three Rhode Island communities – Scituate, Johnston, and North Providence – beginning around 8:40 a.m. Aug. 18 with an estimated peak wind of 115 mph.
The tornado caused significant damage, uprooting or snapping hundreds of large trees and lifting a car off a highway before dropping it back, leaving the driver with minor injuries.
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It is the strongest tornado to strike Rhode Island since the F-2 tornado in Cranston and Providence on Aug. 7, 1986, according to the weather service.
The National Weather Service said in its report that the most damage occurred near Byron Randall Road in Scituate with hundreds of large trees either uprooted or snapped at their bases. A home there sustained significant damage including to its roof, chimney, windows and exterior door.
From there, the tornado tracked into Johnston where it crossed Interstate 295 at Exit 10 and lifted a vehicle into the air before dropping it back onto the highway. The driver was hospitalized with minor injuries. The tornado then moved across Bridle Way and Carriage Way where a number of trees were snapped or uprooted, some of which fell onto homes or vehicles. Some homes also lost some singles from their roofs. A metal stop sign pole was bent in half.
The tornado then caused damage in Highland Memorial Park Cemetery in Johnston where a number of large trees were either snapped or uprooted before it moved into North Providence. Most of the damage observed was to the north of Mineral Spring Avenue. One of the harder-hit areas included the neighborhood around Lydia Avenue, Armand Drive and Bennett Street where two homes were made uninhabitable from fallen trees.
The National Weather Service also confirmed three tornadoes struck Massachusetts the same day.
The first touched down just after 9 a.m. and traveled a discontinuous path of about 7½ miles from North Attleboro to Mansfield. Trees were snapped or uprooted, and an eyewitness saw swirling debris before taking shelter in her home.
Another tornado with peak winds of 80 mph briefly touched down in Stoughton at 9:37 a.m.
A third Massachusetts tornado touched down in Weymouth just after 9:50 a.m. and traveled about a third of a mile with peak winds of 110 mph. An eyewitness who received an emergency alert could see swirling debris out a window as she took shelter in her basement.
There were no fatalities and only one minor injury from the five tornadoes, according to the weather service.
Residents spent the weekend cleaning up debris, including fallen trees.
In Connecticut, a tornado touched down just before 8 a.m. Aug. 18 in the town of Scotland, about 37 miles east of Hartford, with a peak wind of 100 mph. It traveled just under 3 miles.
“While there wasn`t much in the way of structural damage observed, other than gutter damage to two homes, there was significant tree damage. It was estimated that well over one hundred trees were either downed or sheared off at their tops,” the weather service said in an update posted on its website.
New England usually gets only a few tornadoes a year. Most – but not all – are relatively weak.
In 2011, a powerful tornado killed three people and caused severe damage in western Massachusetts. And in 1953, a tornado killed 94 people and injured nearly 1,300 in central Massachusetts, including the city of Worcester. It lasted nearly 1½ hours and damaged or destroyed 4,000 buildings.
Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.
