The best – or worst, however you’d like to classify it – thunderstorm I have ever directly been impacted by and experienced fully happened six years ago today on August 7, 2008. As a weather nerd I will never forget that date. As a human being who values his life I will always remember what it was like to feel a tiny taste of the true power of the atmosphere.
I was living in Stratford, Connecticut, a coastal town, and after a relatively typical warm, humid August day we entered the evening as I kept an eye on a large cell moving very slow to the east/southeast further northwest of me in Fairfield County. I had seen it dumping rain all day and thought we were fortunate not to be getting it as we had just gotten a fair amount of rain the day before. That did not last long as it crept towards us resulting in the following alert from the National Weather Service in Upton, New York.
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE UPTON NY 535 PM EDT THU AUG 7 2008 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN UPTON NY HAS ISSUED A * SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR... CENTRAL NEW HAVEN COUNTY IN SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT... FAIRFIELD COUNTY IN SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT... * UNTIL 615 PM EDT... * AT 533 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING PENNY SIZE HAIL...AND DAMAGING WINDS IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH. THIS STORM WAS LOCATED NEAR GEORGETOWN...OR 9 MILES SOUTH OF NEWTOWN...AND MOVING EAST AT 16 MPH. * THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WILL BE NEAR... TRUMBULL AND MONROE BY 605 PM... SHELTON...DERBY...7 MILES WEST OF ORANGE AND 7 MILES NORTH OF STRATFORD BY 615 PM... THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM. IF YOU ARE IN ITS PATH...PREPARE IMMEDIATELY FOR DAMAGING WINDS...DESTRUCTIVE HAIL...AND DEADLY CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING. PEOPLE OUTSIDE SHOULD MOVE TO A SHELTER... PREFERABLY INSIDE A STRONG BUILDING BUT AWAY FROM WINDOWS.
That was…uh, not good…and it looked bad (but would get far worse).
It was also not entirely accurate as to what would happen because the cell moved more towards the southeast and directly at me. Severe thunderstorms are now defined as having winds of 58+MPH or 1″+ hail without lightning or rainfall rates being included in the requirements. A tornado or a storm that produces structural damage also certainly fit the bill. Any time you have a warning you know it will be dangerous but this one was really ripping and spotter reports would soon back up radar-indicated data. I could tell that I would end up being the center of the bulls eye while tracking it on radar which made me very concerned once I noticed the velocity scans and then received the following…
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED TORNADO WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE UPTON NY 554 PM EDT THU AUG 7 2008 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN UPTON NY HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WARNING FOR... SOUTHERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY IN SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT... FAIRFIELD COUNTY IN SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT... * UNTIL 630 PM EDT... * AT 552 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A TORNADO NEAR TRUMBULL... OR NEAR BRIDGEPORT...MOVING EAST AT 15 MPH. * THE TORNADO WILL BE NEAR... TRUMBULL BY 605 PM... BRIDGEPORT BY 610 PM... STRATFORD BY 620 PM... MILFORD AND ORANGE BY 630 PM... IN ADDITION TO THE TORNADO...THIS STORM IS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING QUARTER SIZE HAIL AND DESTRUCTIVE STRAIGHT LINE WINDS. IF YOU ARE CAUGHT OUTSIDE...SEEK SHELTER IN A NEARBY REINFORCED BUILDING. AS A LAST RESORT...SEEK SHELTER IN A CULVERT...DITCH OR LOW SPOT AND COVER YOUR HEAD WITH YOUR HANDS.
Now we were in trouble – and we had approximately 20 minutes to prepare for a potential direct hit. As I looked at the radar I could see where the tornado would form in the supercell and that it would be moving directly over me. I did not know if one would form or not but I did know this was going to be one of the most powerful thunderstorms I had ever been in. You can see it on this regional radar grab as it exploded in southwest Connecticut with me as the epicenter. Radar returns from torrential rain and sheets of hail made it surpass 60, 65 and even 70 dBZ.
These radar grabs show the first tornado warning and then a second continuation of the warning with a smaller area defined. You can see even the reflectivity radar continues to indicate extremely heavy rain and/or large hail.
As the storm moved in I went outside to observe very heavy rotation aloft and the beginnings of a funnel cloud. This was progressing exactly as both predicted and depicted in that regard. After a couple minutes of awe and fear while I neglected to remember my camera (d’oh) I went back inside to see what we would do. That did not last long as a cloud to ground lightning strike several hundred feet away, close enough to see orange and yellow sparks flying up from the hit, broke the quiet anticipation and started me on wrangling my dog and cat into the basement (the former easily, the latter with great difficulty). This was the real deal and being where we were geographically, with poor sight lines, combined with intense lightning and incoming heavy rain and hail I thought there would be no way to see whether or not we had a tornado touch down or move in. An underrated aspect of all of this was the straight line winds which started to whip up to dangerous levels on their own.
I have never seen or heard hail come down with such fury as white sheets of frozen and liquid water made it look like a snowstorm and sound like a train, the classic tornado description, all on its own. It felt like the storm took hours to move through but the worst part was probably around 10 to 15 minutes. We missed the possible tornado but the cell formed a waterspout once it hit Long Island Sound a few miles to the south and produced hurricane force (75+MPH) wind damage as surveyed and verified subsequently by the National Weather Service and recorded at the Stratford Airport. Being stunned by the experience and soaking it in afterwards it took me around an hour from when it began to take some photos. Even then much of the hail remained in piles around the house and strewn throughout the yard among broken limbs and ripped off leaves.
Some luck was essentially all that prevented the tornado from touching down in my neighborhood but at least we had been prepared and taken the proper precautions – though next time it would have been nice to have the car actually in the garage. Never underestimate the weather and what can happen in a short period of time. Always respect its raw power, unpredictability and play it safe. Thunderstorms and tornadic events rarely last long and some time in a basement or a storm shelter can certainly be memorable and far preferable to an uncertain fate otherwise.
One part I forgot about that evening before rehashing my memories in this post was that a couple hours later we had a very severe thunderstorm hit us again with some of the most vivid nighttime lightning I have ever seen. It was a terrible storm with more large hail but paled in comparison to what had occurred earlier. Everything is relative and I am very thankful this close encounter was the worst severe or tornadic thunderstorm I have ever had to face at home. Let’s also keep in mind that warming our climate will only produce more conducive conditions for some of the devastating and nightmarish storms and tornadoes that level entire towns and kill hundreds in America each year and stopping climate change helps to mitigate the flow of deadly fuel into our planet’s atmosphere.
Scott Kruitbosch
Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
