BROOKFIELD — Two tornadoes tore through parts of Connecticut during the severe storms Tuesday, bringing winds in excess of 110 mph and leaving devastation in their wake.

The National Weather Service confirmed late Wednesday that one tornado touched down in Southbury and Oxford.

Maximum winds of more than 100 mph cut a 4.5-mile path between the two towns, uprooting trees, knocking down power lines, closing roads and damaging homes.

Another tornado with maximum winds of more than 110 mph touched down for 9.5 miles between Beacon Falls and Hamden, causing similar damage, according to the National Weather Service.

In Brookfield, weather service officials examined severe damage on the ground and determined it likely was not a tornado.

The worst damage was most likely caused by an intense downdraft of air known as a macroburst, the weather service reported.

“A macroburst can cause damage that’s just as bad, if not worse, than a tornado,” said meteorologist Bill Goodman, who spent several hours assessing the damage in some of the worst-affected neighborhoods near Candlewood Lake.

The key indicator was the direction that trees uprooted or knocked down by the wind came to rest.

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“Downed trees converging into a middle point, or trees criss-crossing each other, are indicators of a tornado,” Goodman said. “But when you find trees that are more fanned out from the center, it indicates a downburst. Sometimes it’s obvious and sometimes its not.”

Goodman said he saw telltale signs of a downburst by looking at damage on points of land to the north and south of Echo Bay Marina.

“The trees are definitely fanned out up here,” Goodman said.

Downbursts can pack winds as high as 160 mph. A downburst affecting an area smaller than 2.5 miles across is called a microburst, while one that extends beyond that range is called a macroburst.

Evidence suggested that Tuesday’s macroburst hit first near the Candlewood Shores neighborhood before extending east across Route 7 as far as Lake Lillinonah.

After surveying damage in Brookfield, Goodman and his team planned to work their way east to Southbury.

The weather service confirmed Wednesday that three tornadoes had touched down Tuesday across the state line in New York, along with a microburst and a macroburst.

A tornado with maximum winds of 110 mph briefly touched down in Kent, N.Y., the service said, and another with maximum winds of 100 mph touched down in Patterson. A third with maximum winds of 85 mph touched down in Newburgh.

A macroburst with winds up to 90 mph struck an area about three miles wide and four miles long in the Cherry Hill area near Kent, N.Y., and a microburst with 80-mph winds knocked down trees near North Salem.