What Happened Yesterday

When I committed to attend Middlebury College, I did not expect that there would be a tornado in my college town during my time here. Especially in March. That happened yesterday.

A high CAPE, low shear setup spawned an EF-1 tornado just northeast of of downtown Middlebury.

(NWS Burlington)

Unfortunately, this one was not National Weather Service warned, and two injuries were suffered. Radar imagery showed a clear tornado debris signature, and fortunately the tornado was not more damaging. Here is the path of the tornado. We can see just how close it was to downtown.

The tornado started less than 1.5 miles from downtown and less than 2 miles from the Middlebury College campus. Per the National Weather Service storm survey, the width of the path was 75 yards, and the path length was one mile. This was an EF-1 tornado with a maximum wind speed of 110 mph, meaning that it had wind speeds just below the EF-2 category, which spans from 111 mph to 135 mph. The time of the event was estimated to be from 1:50 to 1:55 P.M.

The tornado damaged powerlines and ripped through numerous trees. On Painter Road, a house was almost completely destroyed, and 2 were injured.

(Tyler Jankoski)

I went over to Painter Road yesterday to examine some of the damage. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to proceed too far on the road since cleanup crews were busy at work. Here's some photos I took:

Thankfully, no lives were lost in this unwarned event.

Since 1950, there have been 47 tornados in Vermont, and only one occurred in March before this one. The last one was in 2019. In a future post, I plan to take a look at tornado climatology in Vermont.