Tornado Touched Down in Woodbury During Storm, NWS Says

The Greater Danbury Area and other places in the region dodged a bullet Thursday, when the National Weather Service confirmed today an isolated tornado briefly touched down in Woodbury during the Thursday, June 9 storm.

While much of the rest of the area around that town was wreaked by traditional but severe thunderstorms, a small area of Woodbury by 140 Great Hollow Road was the site of a brief touchdown by a tornado that traveled only about 100 yards, the weather service said.

The tornado was classified as "EF1" or the second weakest category. Videos showed that a funnel cloud moved over the area, the weather service said.

While the weather service in Upton, N.Y., which is responsible for most of this region, said no evidence of a tornado touched down in Fairfield and New Haven counties, the weather service in Albany, which is responsible for Litchfield County, said that based on witness video and a survey of the damage, Woodbury was the site of a microburst.

The tornado touched down at approximately 4:48 p.m., June 9 and brought with it 100 mph winds, the weather service said. Most of the damage was to hardwood trees and covered an area about one mile wide and one and half miles long between Upper Grassy Hill and Great Hollow roads, the weather service said.

Upton, N.Y.-based weather service meteorologist Jim Connolly said it was not unusual in a severe thunderstorm to have a tornado form in an isolated area.

"It was a brief touch down," he said.