Tornado Hit Rhode Island During Furious Storms: NWS

LINCOLN, RI — The National Weather Service confirmed that an EF1 tornado hit Rhode Island during furious storms that rocked southern New England Wednesday night.

The tornado formed around 11:30 p.m. over Lincoln, touching down on Breakneck Hill Road. It traveled east into Cumberland before ending just over the Massachusetts border near Cushman Road in North Attleboro, according to the weather service.

The twister had wind speeds of up to 100 mph and was about 100 yards wide, the weather service said. The tornado snapped and uprooted trees, some of which fell onto houses near the Rhode Island-Massachusetts border.

The Wednesday night storms caused damage across New England and in Pennsylvania. The weather service measured wind gusts in excess of 70 mph before the storm slammed into southern Massachusetts.

Although tornadoes are rare in Rhode Island, they have been on the rise in recent years. There have been eight tornadoes in the Ocean State since 2020, including one in Johnston in August 2023 that lifted a car 10-to-15 feet in the air.

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