7 YEARS AGO the worst severe weather outbreak of this generation roared through Connecticut. This remains a benchmark storm for the area, with damage still notable along the hardest hit areas all these years later.
The radar frame below captures the storm near maximum strength over the Candlewood Lake area. The area of dark blue on radar is where winds gusted 80 to 110 mph, producing a swath of damage 3 miles wide and 9 miles long, that would end up being labeled the strongest “Macroburst” from this entire event. Over the years several folks have noted they saw a funnel or tornado over the lake, which is completely plausible as well, given the magnitude of the storm.
At the end of the day, whether it’s 100mph spinning around or in a straight line it’s still does incredible damage. This storm did, of course, go on to produce multiple tornadoes in CT. The first was in Southbury and the second in Hamden. The Hamden Tornado did an incredible amount of damage near Sleeping Giant State Park.
Destruction Near Candlewood Lake
One of the legacies of this storm was that you will now get an EAS alert on your phone if a storm contains estimated winds 80 mph or greater, even if no tornado is present. This was part of a national change by the NWS following this and other similar events where straight line winds caused catastrophic damage and fatalities.
Large Trees Uprooted and Snapped – Pocono Point in Danbury, CT
On a personal note, this event also served as motivation for me to continue with sharing forecasts on social media. I had felt the event in general was fairly well forecast, but so many were still caught off guard, highlighting the opportunity for improved local weather communication. One of the reasons I work so hard to not “hype up” smaller storm events is that when this day comes again someday, my hope is the warnings will be taken seriously.
Photos shared courtesy of Jules Morris Ross from Pocono Point, near the entrance to Echo Bay on Candlewood Lake. Winds in this area were likely 100+ mph. Note multiple large trees uprooted or snapped, with several large pines snapped like toothpicks halfway up.
