New England Remains Weird Tornado Alley, And The Secret Queens, New York Twister

Extensive tornado damage in Webster, Massachusetts Saturday.

More tornadoes hit New England Saturday morning, continuing an incredible year of severe weather in the region. Meanwhile, the nation as a whole is having a quiet, relatively calm tornado year.

Here's a statistic that's pretty wild: New England has had 12 tornadoes so far this year. Oklahoma, the  heart of tornado alley, has also had a total of 12 tornadoes this year. There have been years in which Oklahoma has had more than 12 tornadoes in a week.

Small sized Connecticut is really tornado ground zero this year. They've had six twisters. There have been three tornadoes in Massachusetts and three in New Hampshire. So far, Maine, Rhode Island and Vermont have had no tornadoes, but they've had close misses

Here in Vermont, on two occasions, on May 4 and possibly on Friday, tornadoes touched down in western New Hampshire near the Vermont border from storms that were already rotating as they passed over the Green Mountain State.

The yellow and red streaks in this map show where there were
rotating thunderstorms in New England Friday and Saturday.
Most of the time, the rotation does not result in tornadoes,
but occasionally it happens. Notice the streaks of rotation
in far southern Vermont. No tornado reports, there though. 

Another May 4 storm showed significant rotation and seemed ready to drop a twister in far northern Vermont. But the circulation passed near the high hills and mountains around Jay Peak, and the rotation was disrupted. Thankfully, no tornado.

SATURDAY TWISTERS, MAYBE FRIDAY, TOO?

Two tornadoes hit New England Saturday. The first, in Woodstock, Connecticut, was weak, short lived and caused little damage. However, the supercell that caused the Connecticut tornado dropped a stronger one on the towns of Webster and Dudley, Massachusetts. 

A pair of buildings in Webster were so damaged by the EF-1 tornado that they had to be torn down. Other homes and businesses also suffered damage. It was almost an EF-2 tornado, as the National Weather Service office in Boston, Massachusetts said it had 100 to 110 mph winds. EF-2 tornadoes have winds of 111 to 135 mph.

Friday, a funnel cloud was spotted not far from Keene, New Hampshire. A photo that looks like a funnel touching the ground near Troy, New Hampshire circulated on social media. If it was indeed a funnel that landed, it would be New Hampshire's fourth tornado this year, and New England's thirteenth.

The rotating storm that prompted the New Hampshire funnel earlier very briefly had a particularly strong circulation in a remote area west of Putney, Vermont. If a tornado touched ground in that spot, it's likely nobody would know about it since no-oe was around and the spot is likely not easily accessible. Some tree damage was reported in southeastern Vermont Friday,  but that damage looks like it was caused by straight line winds, not a tornado.

MORE SEVERE WEATHER?

More severe storms are possible in far northern New England Monday, and in much of the region Tuesday and possibly Wednesday. Nobody is talking tornadoes at this point, but the way this year is going, who knows?

Monday's possible storms will be created by a weak weather disturbance brushing past the Canadian border. With very hot, humid air in place, isolated strong to locally severe storms could erupt late in the afternoon or evening north of Route 2 in Vermont, in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and northwestern Maine.

Possible funnel cloud or brief tornado near Troy, New Hampshire Friday.

A cold front approaching from the west will start to run into the hot, humid air Tuesday. Depending on when the front makes its approach, that could trigger additional strong storms. But if the cold front holds off more until Wednesday, the storms are less likely.

On Wednesday, the cold front will still be drifting through eastern New England, possibly triggering strong storms there.

QUEENS, NY SECRET TORNADO

Another tornado touched down late Thursday night in Queens, New York. I'm calling it secret, though the National Weather Service did its due diligence. They issued a tornado warning for that area before the twister touched down.

Mystifyingly, for such a populated area, no TV station that I know of in the New York metro area cut into regular programming to announce the warning. That lack of action is dangerous, since people would be out and about in such a populated area.

I know people get annoyed with severe weather warnings interrupting television programming, especially when the storms aren't particularly close to the person watching the tube. But there's no technology for television stations to limit their warning broadcasts to a small specific area. And I'd rather people be warned about incoming danger, even if I don't immediately learn who won the latest episode of "America's Got Talent."

The lack of broadcast warnings in New York might be due to the fact there was no time for hyping the oncoming bad weather. There was no tornado watch issued hours beforehand, because forecasters knew any severe weather would be brief and localized.

In the end, the Queens tornado was rather weak, an EF-0 with 70 to 85 mph winds, says the National Weather Service in New York. It caused some siding and roof damage on a few buildings, and knocked down dozens of trees, especially in a local park. No injuries were reported.