By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—As Brandon continued to deal with the consequences of last week’s storm, Mother Nature upped the ante and sent a tornado to wreak additional havoc on a community already inundated. On Thursday, July 13, cellphones in the area blared a tornado warning in the late afternoon, taking beleaguered residents by surprise. People scrambled to secure outdoor furniture and fixtures, take in pets and livestock, and find shelter in cellars and other protected areas in their homes.
What had already been an overcast day passed through ever-darker shades of indigo and grey as the leaves on the trees signaled an uptick in wind speed. Suddenly, limbs were torn from trees, cast-iron lawn chairs were upended, loose shingles flew off roofs, and still no one knew how long it would last or how bad it would get.
The tornado touched down in Benson and traveled 12.3 miles to Brandon, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). It began at 6:04 pm and lasted until 6:26 pm, reaching a maximum wind speed of 85 mph.
THE RAINBOW SEEMS to form a protective bubble over downtown Brandon. Photo by Robert Black
When the wind died down and the clouds lifted, the sky glowed an otherworldly orange-yellow as an extravagant rainbow arced over the mountains to the east, capping a terrifying event—and even week—with a scene of remarkable beauty. And as the eerie golden light faded back to muted tones of blue and violet, the rainbow lingered amid flashes of lightning above the Green Mountains.
The tornado was a category EF-0, the weakest on the Enhanced Fujita scale that measures the potency of tornadoes. The damage wrought was, in the grand scheme, minimal. There were no reports of deaths or demolished homes, though many properties lost tree limbs, or even entire trees. A large maple fell across the roadway at the intersection of Park Street Extension and High Street, necessitating a chainsaw concerto late into the night. The already-questionable slate roof of the Town Hall was damaged, causing water to leak into the building below.
A TALL CONIFER lies across Park Street Extension, a victim of the tornado on July 13, 2023. Chainsaws buzzed through the night to remove it and restore traffic flow. Photo by Steven Jupiter
There have been 49 confirmed tornadoes in Vermont since 1953, most of which have been EF-0 or EF-1 and none of which have resulted in any recorded deaths. An EF-2 in the St. Albans area in 1970 resulted in injuries to 7 people. And an EF-2 in the Burlington area in 1983 caused $2,500,000 in damage. But tornadoes have remained rare and weak in Vermont, as compared to tornadoes in the Midwest and South.
By and large the tornado passed through the Brandon area without significant harm. Its most lasting legacy is likely to be the number of beautiful photographs of the rainbow it left in its wake.
