Connecticut’s worst ever tornado touched down in Wallingford on August 9th, 1878. This F4 tornado (with an F5) being the highest on the Fujita Scale had the size, power and devastation of one that has the same characteristics of the most deadly tornadoes that rampage the US Great Plains. Winds in the Wallingford tornado were estimated to be 260 miles per hour and being a half mile wide destroying everything in its path from homes to brick industrial factory buildings. Damage was documented to be unimaginable across the entire town. At least 34 people lost their lives and over a 100 were seriously injured in a matter minutes. Unfortunately there were no warnings from the impending storm due to a lack of technology to spot severe weather conditions in predicting the pending doom.
Today we have the technology to forecast an event of severe weather days in advance to prepare for the worst. The National Weather Service has many services available to us on such preparation.