Four-State Tornado Swarm

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Four-State Tornado Swarm
Storm type Tornado swarm
Data
date August 15, 1787
Duration over 3.5 hours
Fujita scale unknown
Number of tornadoes ≥5
consequences
affected areas Connecticut , Rhode Island , Massachusetts , New Hampshire
Victim 2

The Four-State Tornado Swarm was a series of severe tornadoes in New England on August 15, 1787 . At least five separate tornadoes caused severe damage in the states of Connecticut , Rhode Island , Massachusetts and New Hampshire . Two people were killed in a tornado in Wethersfield, Connecticut , and many more were injured across New England. The event marks the first tornado outbreak in the Central United States' weather records, which have been kept since 1787.

Meteorological overview

The first storm damage occurred in Litchfield , Connecticut. A strong northwest wind with hailstones weighing more than an ounce (over 28 g) damaged crops and shattered windows. Four men were injured by lightning, but survived.

Map indicating the areas that recorded damage. Not all of these areas were definitely hit by a tornado; some of the tornadoes affected more than one town.

The first tornado hit the ground near New Britain, Connecticut between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. and moved east-northeast. The roof of a barn was blown away over two miles. The tornado then moved through Newington to Wethersfield. It was described here as "whirling with impressive speed and a mostly harrowing roar". The tornado moved through a largely uninhabited part of the town ; if it had run a few hundred meters further north or south, the tornado would have been "fatal for a large number of families". The tornado moved eastwards with a slight north offset and only hit one house, the residents of which had fled the building in view of the tornado. Two boys, their mother and a baby, and the father were struck by the tornado in a nearby field. The two boys were later found among some rubble, one dead and the other "feared fatal wounds". The mother died too, but the baby in her arms survived with only minor injuries. The man was thrown over a fence, but also suffered only minor injuries. The family home was covered and several outbuildings "razed to the ground". Clothes from the house were found five kilometers away, boards and trees were carried away by the whirlwind eight hundred meters and farther.

This tornado continued on its way from Wethersfield in an east-northeast direction, outlining almost all of the trees in its path. He eventually reached Glastonbury. There he badly damaged several houses and barns and covered the roof of a large brick building. Two people were slightly injured in Glastonbury. The damage path from this tornado continued at least to Bolton and Coventry , where further damage was caused. More detailed information on property damage or personal injury in these two locations is not known.

The second tornado was sighted east of East Windsor , Connecticut. It damaged a house and a barn, but moved northeast from the center of the settlement. Trees with a trunk diameter of 45 cm were knocked down and stones "of considerable size" were thrown around. There were no recorded injuries from this tornado.

The third tornado had a longer path. It was first spotted in Killingly , Connecticut and moved northeast to Rhode Island, which it reached near Glocester . There orchards were destroyed and a house with a barn was "torn to pieces" while the family who lived there sought refuge in the cellar. Several other houses were covered. One woman was carried away some distance, but only slightly injured. The tornado continued northeast to Mendon , Massachusetts, about 20 miles from where it landed.

The fourth known tornado was first discovered near Northborough, Massachusetts . This tornado caused severe damage to the boundary between Marlborough and Southborough . In Marlborough, a barn was torn from its foundation. The roof of a house was destroyed and parts of it were carried away around 1200 m. Many structures were damaged in Southborough and Framingham . A house was destroyed, but two women who stayed in it were only grazed. The tornado broke up east of Framingham. Storms and floods caused major crop failures.

Observers of the event reported that parts of houses, furniture and trees were blown through the air. There was severe damage to the tree vegetation along the entire length of the path, but the damage path was hardly wider than 40 m and in many places narrower. The greatest damage occurred in these zones.

The last known tornado of the day occurred further north in Rochester , New Hampshire. A house with eight residents was lifted from its foundations in the tornado, but only two of the people were injured. Parts of the house were found five kilometers away. A barn was "completely carried away" and no longer found. Trees, fences and agricultural products were razed to the ground along the tornado path, which was about 20 m wide. Significant damage was also recorded at Dunbarton and Concord , but it is not known whether these were directly related to the tornado.

List of recorded tornadoes
Tornadoes
F # Location county Time ( UTC ) Path length Damage
Connecticut
F? New Britain to Coventry Hartford , Tolland 13:30 ≥8 km New Britain , Newington , Wethersfield, Glastonbury , Bolton , Coventry. 2 dead, 10 injured.
F? northeast of East Windsor Hartford unknown 8 kilometers East Windsor
F? Killingly to Mendon, Massachusetts ' Windham , Providence (RI) , Worcester (MA) 17:00 32 km Killingly, Glocester, RI , Mendon, MA. 1 person injured.
Massachusetts
F? Northborough to Framingham Worcester, Middlesex County unknown 13 km Northborough, Southborough , Framingham. 2 injured.
New Hampshire
F? Rochester Strafford unknown Rochester. 2 injured.
Sources: Grazulis, p. 553; Ludlam pp. 12-16

Historical perspective

August 15, 1787 was the day with the most recorded tornadoes at the time, and it was the worst tornado outbreak in early New England, rivaling only the Great New Hampshire Tornado Outbreak of 1821. Very few buildings were hit by the tornadoes - because they just missed many densely populated locations - so the number of victims remained low.

A few days later, an article was published in the Connecticut Courant (now Hartford Courant ) describing the appearance of "a black pillar from earth to cloud" near Wethersfield. This description remained the most complete description of a tornado until the 1830s.

See also

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Grazulis, p. 553
  2. ↑ Tornado: Largest Tornado Outbreak ( Memento of the original from September 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Arizona State University . Retrieved February 10, 2011. (English)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / wmo.asu.edu
  3. ↑ No Author: Litchfield, August 20 ( PDF), The Connecticut Courant and Weekly Intelligencer . August 27, 1787, p. 3. Retrieved June 25, 2009. 
  4. ↑ a b c d Ludlam, p. 12
  5. ↑ a b c d e J. Lewis: An Account of the late hurricane at Wethersfield (English) (PDF), Connecticut Courant and Weekly Intelligencer . August 20, 1787, p. 3. Retrieved June 10, 2009. 
  6. ↑ a b c Ludlam, pg. 15th
  7. ↑ a b Goucester, August 17, 1787 ( PDF), The Connecticut Courant and Weekly Intelligencer. September 3, 1787, p. 2. Retrieved June 25, 2009. 
  8. ^ Boston, Aug. 20 ( PDF), Connecticut Courant and Weekly Intelligencer . August 27, 1787, p. 3. Retrieved June 25, 2009. 
  9. ↑ Ludlam, p. 16
  10. ↑ Portsmouth, Aug. 18 ( PDF), The Connecticut Courant and Weekly Intelligencer . August 27, 1787, p. 3. Retrieved June 25, 2009. 
  11. ↑ Perley, p. 142

literature

  • Thomas P Grazulis: Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991 . The Tornado Project of Environmental Films, St. Johnsbury, VT July 1993, ISBN 1-879362-03-1 .
  • David McWilliams Ludlum: Early American Tornadoes 1586-1870 . American Meteorological Society, Boston, MA 1970, ISBN 0933876327 .
  • Sidney Perley: Historic Storms of New England (PDF), The Salem Press Publishing and Printing Company, Salem, Mass. 1891 (Retrieved February 11, 2011).