On This Date: An Early 19th Century Vermont Long-Track Tornado
On July 2, 1833, 192 years ago today, the town of Holland in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom was struck by a "violent tornado," according to "A History and Description of New England."
Said to be up to three-quarters of a mile wide, the twister "prostrated and scattered nearly all the trees, fences and buildings in its course."
The tornado first developed over Salem Pond, then tracked northeast into Canada, according to the authors of the book published in 1860. They also wrote, "Its course could be traced through the forests nearly to the Connecticut River."
If that was indeed one long-track tornado, rather than multiple tornadoes generated by a supercell, its path would have been over 30 miles long.
Only 50 tornadoes have been documented in Vermont in modern records since 1950, according to NOAA. That's an average of one tornado at least every other year in the Green Mountain State. The strongest documented tornado damage in Vermont was F2, from 14 different tornadoes from 1955 through 2002.
(MORE: How Many Tornadoes In Your State?)
Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.
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