From a young age, Scott Pecoriello has been fascinated by weather.
At Staples, the Class of 2015 member was the school’s go-to meteorologist. Students, teachers and (especially) coaches relied on his spot-on forecasts.
When the tornado warning was issued for Connecticut’s coast yesterday, Scott headed to Compo Beach. At 1:40, he saw “a possible waterspout/tornado” come ashore.
He sent the photo (below) and video to the National Weather Service. They’re reviewing it, to confirm.
(Photo/Scott Pecoriello)
Scott says, “there have been no confirmed records of a tornado to ever pass through Westport since records began in the early 1900s. Connecticut averages about 1.3 tornadoes per year, and is ranked 43rd out of 50 for states with the most tornadoes.”
He notes, “The unusually high damage in Westport compared to surrounding towns — particularly at the coastline near Saugatuck Shores — could be in part due to this waterspout.”
For what it’s worth, our whole street is pretty sure a tornado bounced through around 2:00 pm. There was a roar that we all heard (at our own houses) and the sky was wild with leaves and oddly cloudy over by the schools. Suddenly a few trees in different yards went down all at once and the power went out, and then we instantly got the weather service warnings on our phones and watches that a tornado warning was imminent. We ran down the basement and then it was regular high wind again. Who knows?
Of course Scott would be the one to spot it! Great capture!
We are at Old Mill Beach and it was as close to a Tornado you can get…the light, the color of light, and the fact that three car windows blew out from barometric pressure. We thought the windows were going in our house were going in.
Our neighbor on Saint George Place reports that she saw a small twister move up out road. There is actually a path of destruction through a little wooded area as well as trees and a telephone pole snapped off. Altogether terrifying!