An EF-1 tornado touched down in Williamstown late Thursday, the National Weather Service confirmed Friday.Residents along Chelsea Road said the tornado came out of nowhere and caused a lot of damage. “Never seen this kind of damage before, it’s crazy,” said Christian Pratt.Trees were knocked down. Golf ball-sized hail dented siding and cars. Roofs were torn off at least one home and a barn in only 15 minutes.Pratt was on his front porch when the storm started before going inside when the hail started falling.”I’ve never heard that on the roof before. It was nuts. I don’t even know how to describe the sound. It’s like somebody taking a loader and dumping a load of rocks on the roof,” he said.A window in his kitchen was shattered, a car in front had a side mirror broken and there were some dents from the hail. He says it covered the lawn like it snowed. A glass table on the porch escaped unscathed from the storm.”I don’t know how this glass survived,” said Pratt. “That’s funny.”The full extent of the damage to his home is still unknown.”I don’t know if the roof is damaged or not. I won’t be able to tell till they get a pro here to look at it,” he said.Crews from the National Weather Service say what sets a tornado apart from straight line winds is the rotation. The debris path and the direction it goes in determines if a tornado was the cause.”We don’t see a lot of them, they are mainly in the Midwest. You usually want a lot more flat, undisturbed terrain because the hills here will tend to break up the storms,” said Marlon Verasamy with the National Weather Service. “Generally, when we do see tornadoes around the area that they’ve been in Addison County and not here, so it make it really, really unique to get a tornado in this kind of terrain in this part of the state.”No injuries have been reported.
An EF-1 tornado touched down in Williamstown late Thursday, the National Weather Service confirmed Friday.
Residents along Chelsea Road said the tornado came out of nowhere and caused a lot of damage.
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“Never seen this kind of damage before, it’s crazy,” said Christian Pratt.
Trees were knocked down. Golf ball-sized hail dented siding and cars. Roofs were torn off at least one home and a barn in only 15 minutes.
Pratt was on his front porch when the storm started before going inside when the hail started falling.
“I’ve never heard that on the roof before. It was nuts. I don’t even know how to describe the sound. It’s like somebody taking a loader and dumping a load of rocks on the roof,” he said.
A window in his kitchen was shattered, a car in front had a side mirror broken and there were some dents from the hail. He says it covered the lawn like it snowed. A glass table on the porch escaped unscathed from the storm.
“I don’t know how this glass survived,” said Pratt. “That’s funny.”
The full extent of the damage to his home is still unknown.
“I don’t know if the roof is damaged or not. I won’t be able to tell till they get a pro here to look at it,” he said.
Crews from the National Weather Service say what sets a tornado apart from straight line winds is the rotation. The debris path and the direction it goes in determines if a tornado was the cause.
“We don’t see a lot of them, they are mainly in the Midwest. You usually want a lot more flat, undisturbed terrain because the hills here will tend to break up the storms,” said Marlon Verasamy with the National Weather Service. “Generally, when we do see tornadoes around the area that they’ve been in Addison County and not here, so it make it really, really unique to get a tornado in this kind of terrain in this part of the state.”
No injuries have been reported.
