Rare tornado touches down in Cape Cod, Massachusetts

A rare tornado hit Cape Cod, Massachusetts on July 23, 2019, causing widespread destruction in the popular tourist vacation town. Of the 1 253 tornadoes that the US has on average each year, Massachusetts sees only one and Alaska and Rhode Island none.

According to the NWS, the damage from the tornado began in Yarmouth and ended in Harwich on Cape Cod. The damage on the Cape was caused by both a tornado and straight-line wind damage.

The greatest amount of damage appears to have occurred in the town of Harwich. The tornado itself touched down in Yarmouth and then touched down again in Harwich with pockets of EF1 damage in both locations.

There was extensive tree and powerline damage, NWS said. Most of the town of Harwich lost power due to the storm.

The maximum wind speed for the tornado was 177 km/h (110 mph) which equates to a strong EF1 tornado on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.

Teo Blašković

I'm a dedicated researcher, journalist, and editor at The Watchers. With over 20 years of experience in the media industry, I specialize in hard science news, focusing on extreme weather, seismic and volcanic activity, space weather, and astronomy, including near-Earth objects and planetary defense strategies. You can reach me at teo /at/ watchers.news.

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