It was a tornado. Storms tore through Mass. and R.I. with winds up to 100 mph, experts say. - The Boston Globe (2024)

The weather service said the tornado touched down near Breakneck Hill Road in Lincoln and traveled a total of 4.3 miles east-northeast, reaching a maximum intensity of 100 mph in a few locations. The maximum width of the tornado was approximately 100 yards. The twister continued through Cumberland, crossed the state line into North Attleborough, Mass., and finally lifted in the vicinity of Cushman Road.

When classifying a storm, the experts consider “how trees and branches have fallen onto the ground,” meteorologist Candice Hrencecin said Thursday. “If they fall in one direction, that indicates straight-line wind. If it’s more chaotic, than it can be an indicator of a tornado having occurred,” she said.

Large trees crashed into homes and downed power lines after severe thunderstorms and powerful wind gusts swept through southern New England, leaving extensive damage throughout southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The National Weather Service issued a brief tornado warning due to radar-indicated rotation, although no funnel cloud was detected. The warning was canceled within 20 minutes.

The same storm cell produced 77 mph wind gusts in Connecticut earlier on Wednesday.

It was the second tornado to strike in New England in less than a week. On Sunday, the NWS confirmed an EF-1 tornado had touched down in Dublin, N.H., during violent thunderstorms. No one was injured.

In the storm’s aftermath, Rhode Island had made good progress restoring power. Where some 28,900 customers were initially without power, by 5 p.m. Thursday, that number had dwindled to less than 1,800 customers.

There were multiple reports of trees down in Lincoln, as well as in the Massachusetts towns of Seekonk, Raynham, and Plymouth.

Lincoln town administrator Philip Gould said at least a handful of large trees toppled, crashing into houses in town.

“God bless there were no reported injuries,” Gould said. “We were lucky. ... I got off the phone with one gentleman whose tree came crashing down in their bedroom. Wife was in bed when it happened.”

“It’s pretty significant (damage),” he added. “I’d be surprised if this isn’t called a tornado or path of damage.”

Lincoln resident Roxanne Beretta was trying to sleep when she felt the ground rumble beneath her. She heard the howling wind, jumped to her feet, and ran from her bedroom.

“I knew something was up,” said Beretta, who spent the rest of the night outside because her Mulberry Lane home was unsafe. A tree had crashed through the ceiling and came to rest inches from where she had slept.

“I called for my husband downstairs and he said, ‘What did you just drop?’” Beretta said. “We had this huge, loud boom — I didn’t drop anything. And then we heard the rain inside the house and I said, ‘Is there a window open?’”

The Berettas opened the door to the upstairs bedroom and were stunned to find a tree had punched through the ceiling, branches poking through the window. The American Red Cross is assisting the family because the house is uninhabitable. The ceiling is bowing, and there is flood damage.

Beretta said they may not be able to return to the home for a year.

“Somebody was looking out for me,” Beretta said. “If I had still stayed in bed and the tree hit me, it would have pinned me. He would have slept right through it. … He didn’t hear anything.”

Outside, the Berettas found many large trees on their block had been felled by the storm.

Across the street at 4 Mulberry Lane, Charlie Ayotte was cutting up a pine tree that fell inches from his car. It was one of three pines he planted after buying the home in 1972.

Neighbor Alyssa Bonilla said that by the time she got the thunderstorm alert and tornado warning on her cellphone, the storm had passed.

“It maybe lasted 10 to 15 minutes,” she said.

”We have kids,” Bonilla said. “They slept through it all. … We are very, very grateful and feel very blessed that no one was injured.”

In Seekonk, where the National Weather Service said Thursday that it could not confirm a tornado, at least 30 large trees at Seekonk High School had been twisted, uprooted, or sheered off during the powerful storm.

On Thursday morning, a Seekonk Department of Public Works crew worked to remove debris and make the entrance to the high school passable from Arcade Avenue.

Seekonk DPW worker Nathan Kowalski said he’d worked for the department for over a year and this was the worst damage he’d seen on the job. He said Thursday morning’s cleanup outside the school was an all-hands-on-deck effort.

Trees near the high school’s basketball courts and ball fields were also uprooted. One fell over the bleachers, and a portable toilet was toppled.

Seekonk Schools Superintendent Rebecca Kidwell told the Globe Thursday morning that the damage on the high school campus certainly looks like the path of a powerful storm or tornado. The storm appears to have come across the Turner Reservoir, through the forest behind the high school where the cross country team runs, across the athletic fields, past the front of the high school, and out onto Arcade Avenue, she said.

Kidwell said no one had been injured, and the damage to the high school itself is concentrated within its inner courtyard area, where uprooted trees damaged windows, an air conditioning unit, and part of the roof.

“There are currently a number of trees leaning against the building,” Kidwell said.

Seekonk does have a small summer high school, Kidwell said, in addition to an athletic weight room program, summer camp, and an extended school year program for students with special needs. Those will continue, in parts of the building unaffected by the storm that have already been cleared by the building inspector, she said.

In Boston, there was record daily rainfall after two lines of storms came through, dumping nearly 2 inches and causing some flash flooding.

A row of thunderstorms moved west to east across Massachusetts and brought repeated rounds of rain across Boston, Framingham, and Worcester late Wednesday night, according to Globe meteorologist Ken Mahan.

“This happens when there’s enough convection in place where when one storm exits, another can form in its wake,” Mahan said. “Meanwhile, a secondary, more conventional line of thunderstorms marched across southern New England, parking very strong winds. These two rounds of storm left over 50 reports of wind damage and nearly a dozen flooding instances.”

Marianne Mizera of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.

This story will be updated with additional information as it becomes available.

Carlos Muñoz can be reached at carlos.munoz@globe.com. Follow him @ReadCarlos and on Instagram @Carlosbrknews. maria caporizzo can be reached at maria.caporizzo@globe.com. Follow her @mariacap.