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FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Conn. -- Fairfield County residents may feel like they are living in tornado alley, with another twister hit confirmed from Wednesday in the northeastern part of the state, and other strikes confirmed last week.
A rare Fairfield County tornado hit July 1, causing damage in backcountry Greenwich and North Stamford. Read about the storm here on The Daily Voice. Two other tornadoes were confirmed for that day upstate, one in East Windsor and another in Windsor Locks and surrounding towns that destroyed a sports dome.
The tornado that hit Tolland County on Wednesday afternoon, July 10, was confirmed Thursday afternoon by the National Weather Service in Taunton, Mass. A survey team from the weather service found a damage path 11.2 miles long and 100 yards wide from Andover to Mansfield, which is near the University of Connecticut.
Numerous trees were uprooted and tree tops snapped off along the damage path. The only structural damage found was to a sheet metal shed. No injuries or fatalities were reported.
The tornado, with an estimated maximum wind speed of 90 mph, first touched down in Andover at about 5:20 and lifted off in Mansfield at about 5:51 p.m.
The weather service also confirmed a microburst and straight line wind damage at about 4:27 p.m. Wednesday in the town of Tolland.
The severe thunderstorm downed several trees and large branches in a storm with a maximum wind speed of 80 mph. It followed a path 50 yards wide and 1.25 miles long.
Witnesses reported seeing a funnel cloud, but the survey team did not find any evidence of a tornado touchdown. All the downed tree were blown in the same direction, which is indicative of a micorburst.
A microburst is a convective downdraft with peak winds lasting less than five minutes that may induce dangerous wind shears, the weather service said. Straight-line winds have no rotation, which differentiates them from tornadic winds.
In the storm Wednesday, the town of South Windsor reported that 3.30 inches of rain had fallen by 9:30 p.m., with more than 2 inches of rain falling in one hour, the weather service said.
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