Pictured above is some of the damage created by the storms at a farm on Barnes Road outside Mayville. Photo by Mike Mattson

Eyewitness reports paint a frightening picture of what happened on Barnes Road in the town of Portland Thursday, where a tornado touched down just before 5 p.m. The dark funnel cloud reportedly held large tree limbs hovering in midair and hurled a semi-trailer 150 yards, in addition to heavily damaging several structures.

The National Weather Service in Buffalo confirmed that a EF-1 tornado formed, causing heavy damage to the area in addition to the widespread high winds and rain seen throughout Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Erie counties.

The storm, ranked in the second category of the Fujita scale from EF-0 to EF-5, is estimated to have touched down at 4:50 p.m. with a maximum wind speed of 100 mph, according to the NWS.

A public information statement from the NWS lists no human injuries or fatalities, and states that “a funnel cloud developed on the south side of Barnes Road just west of 6339 Barnes Road. The tornado initial touchdown occurred in a wooded area then moved across the property.”

This video was shared with The Post-Journal by Rachel Johnson

Reported damage includes a garage that was flattened and minor livestock injuries.

“The tornado continued approximately another 1,500 yards with the last tree damage visible toward the east end of Farr Road,” according to the report.

Ted Gruber of 6467 Barnes Road arrived home shortly before the tornado touched down, and relayed eyewitness reports from his brother and niece.

“On the way out my brother calls me, he lives between where the barn got leveled and my house. He asked me if everything was OK because the tornado just hit,” Gruber said. “We were inside the house when all of this took place. We had a thunderstorm coming through, and we don’t think too much about that. It was pretty bad. I was playing with my granddaughter and noticed a bit of a different sound, like more of a howling.”

Gruber said that his niece had a clear view of the storm.

“She was outside, she could see a funnel cloud forming across the road, but she was seeing tree limbs up in the air just hovering,” he said.

Michael Fries, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Buffalo, said that initial reports from storm spotters and social media posts indicated that severe weather damage had occurred.

“We use these combined with our knowledge of the state of the atmosphere and data from the radar to determine if it is feasibly possible that a tornado could have occurred,” Fries said. “Once we determine that it would have been possible, we coordinate a survey with the county or local emergency management office. Because they generally know where the majority of the damage has occurred prior to our arrival, they tend to show us where things are bad first. We tend to elongate our search area for damage based upon the radar data from an event beyond where the initial damage reports come from.”

Fries said that survey teams will view the damage path of a storm to determine if a tornado has occurred, and will then rate the event on the Fujita scale.

“The possible tornado in Chautauqua County has been confirmed as a tornado,” National Weather Service Meteorologist Liz Jurkowski said. “We had very hot and humid conditions. Then, additionally, the major factor, what made everything severe, was our winds over the area. What we had was a very good wind-shear, which is a change of wind speed and direction with height. So that is what made some of the nice little showers more severe and into something serious. Overall we had quite a few trees down across the area, we’ve had flooding across the area. We got damage reports with the possibility of it being a tornado, we then sent a storm survey team and they have surveyed the area, the damage, and have come to the conclusion that it was a tornado.”

While severe weather also occurred throughout Western New York on Thursday, Portland is the only location with a confirmed tornado.