NWS: Tornado tore though parts of RI, Mass.
LINCOLN, R.I. (WPRI) — Strong storms hit Southern New England overnight, and we've now learned that a tornado was to blame for some of the damage left behind.
The National Weather Service (NWS) confirmed Thursday that an EF-1 tornado touched down at 11:23 p.m. in the area of Breakneck Hill Road in Lincoln. It had a maximum width of about 100 yards and winds of up to 100 mph.
The tornado traveled more than four miles through Cumberland, taking down trees, limbs and power lines, before it lifted around 11:30 p.m. near Cushman Road in North Attleboro.
Bryce Williams is a meteorologist with the NWS. He told 12 News that the storm was "packing a punch."
According to Williams, the direction that trees fall can help determine whether there was a tornado.
"If they're laying in the same direction, that can often tell us that we're looking at straight-line wind damage, something from like a microburst oftentimes," Williams explained.
"Whereas if we see trees that are laid in all different directions or in a circular pattern... that oftentimes will signify a tornado. And that's what we saw a lot today on our survey," he continued.
Todd Manni directs the Emergency Management Agency in Smithfield. When surveying the damage, he also looked at the trees.
"If you notice all these trees are all live, healthy trees, they’re not dead. Goes to show how strong the wind really was," Manni explained.
No injuries or fatalities were reported.
PHOTOS: Storms cause severe damage in Southern New England
Story continues below video.
Our Power Outage Database shows that roughly 530 Rhode Island Energy customers were still without power as of 5:45 a.m. Friday, while another 250 National Grid customers were out in Massachusetts.
That's down from tens of thousands of combined outages.
Interactive power outage map
Call your energy provider to report an outage.
Rhode Island Energy: 1 (855)-743-1102
Eversource: 1-800-592-2000
National Grid (Mass.): 1 (800) 465-1212
Pascoag Utility District: (401) 568-6222
Block Island Utility District: (401) 466-5851
As long as it's safe to do so, send your storm pics to 12 News via Report It!
Tornado and Severe Thunderstorm warnings were in effect during the storm.
The city of East Providence announced that storm debris such as leaves and branches can be dropped off at the Forbes Street compost site from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, Monday and Tuesday.
WATCH: Local meteorologist walks us through storm damage in Cumberland
Last August, an EF-2 tornado with winds of 115 mph touched down in Scituate and traveled more than nine miles through Johnston and North Providence. During that same storm, weaker tornadoes hit Attleboro, Mansfield, Weymouth and Stoughton, Massachusetts, as well as Scotland, Connecticut.
The following month, two EF-1 tornadoes landed in Glocester and Killingly and an EF-0 briefly touched down in North Attleboro.
WATCH: Car picked up by tornado on I-295 in Johnston
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