Possible Tornado Reports In Hudson Valley

DUTCHESS COUNTY, NY — Yes, there was some wild weather going on in Dutchess County Wednesday afternoon, but was that really a tornado?

Severe thunderstorm watches turned into warnings. Then, at 2:47 p.m., the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for central Litchfield County in northern Connecticut and east central Dutchess County in New York.

The warning said that at 2:47 p.m. there was a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado located over Kent, Connecticut, moving northeast at 55 mph.

The weather service didn't indicate any locations in Dutchess County that were in imminent damage of tornadic activity.

NOAA's Storm Prediction Center indicated there was an amateur radio report of wind damage — a tree down on wires on Kent Road in Kent — at 2:47 p.m. Two minutes prior to that, the center said there was a report from social media of trees down south of Dover Plains High School.

Matt Hammer of News 12 in the Hudson Valley posted a video on Facebook he said was shot 15 minutes from Hopewell Junction.

The meteorologist said there were numerous reports of a tornado coming into his newsroom.

Hammer also said in his Facebook post that Doppler radar indicated a funnel cloud around 2:20 p.m. east of the Taconic State Parkway in LaGrange.

Then there was this video tweet clearly showing rotation:

Time lapse video of a circulation that went on and produced a tornado warning to my E near the NY/CT border #NYwx @NWSAlbany pic.twitter.com/SKCTWqQa06
— William Flamholtz (@wflamholtzwx) April 21, 2021

The National Weather Service has not weighed in yet about whether it was a tornado, but the radar report seemed to put the funnel cloud southwest of the two wind damage reports in Connecticut.