The National Weather Service confirms a tornado touched down in Chautauqua County. 

The tornado’s path crossed a property in Portland, destroying a barn in the process. One of the homeowners says they're still trying to wrap their head around what happened. 

Meteorologist Michael Fries with The National Weather Service says the last confirmed tornado in Western New York was in October 2018. He said Forecasters predicted a 5 percent tornado likelihood for the region Thursday morning, which may not sound like a lot — but he says it is significant for this area because it does not see tornadoes often. Fries says certain conditions must be met for a tornado to touch down. 

"Basically, the two main ingredients we look for are one — instability. So basically a day that is hot and humid. And two, we look at both the change in wind speed and direction with height. Those two things are probably the most important things we look for and yesterday we had both of those ingredients,” said Fries.

The tornado was ranked and confirmed an EF1. The estimated maximum wind speed was 100 mph while it was on the ground for a mile and a half.