1953 ORH Tornado

[#NoPoles]

and then Worcester replanted with a monoculture of Norway Maples...helping to fuel the Asian Longhorned Beetle infestation we are currently dealing with...

[rgwp96]

  damn im still shocked at those photos.    If you said guess were these photos are from ,ORH would never even come to mind.  Guess nobody is truly safe from a monster tornado happening in their area.   

[Typhoon Tip]

From a met perspective the 1979 BDL tornado was more bizarre. Getting an F4 from that setup is just wild.

In terms of a more classic supercell and impressive storm the ORH tornado wins.

Yes ... it was, because R. D. Sahl is so unrecognizably young as a fledgling anchorman out of Hartford CT- amazing comparison. As well, the on-camera Met covering along side was just less than palpably unsure of himself, simultaneously wrapped in that news-caster unnatural parochial conservative dorkiness of the times. Toe-nail curling to watch to some degree...

R.D. made it up into the Boston media market before ultimately getting douche-bagged by the typical shananogans of the Big 3, and ended up over at NECN I believe. I was watching a Youtube that was a recording the 6pm news, and I was having trouble - then it hit me, that's that dude! Haven't seen or heard of that Met anywhere else, though.

Someone should do an excruciatingly tedious "Where Are They Now" for guys and gals like the Met. It would be hilarious. You know ...those extras in Hollywood for that matter...? Like, freeze frame, super-impose an arrow that points at some head in the scene, then do an extensive bio that holds nothing back. If it's good news, great! If the life shall we say ... wasnt' so great, all the gory details. Call the segment, "Persons who thought they had a chance to be famous", do the arrow thingy, then start the run-down.

Aaaanyway, one aspect about 1953 that I think is interesting is that frontal wedge appearance of the cyclone that came through. The warm front was draped NW/SE just NE of ORH, with a cold front (and attended squalline) over eastern NY. The low was up near Watertown or thereabouts. This configuration of a warm front/baroctropic air's nascent penetration followed abruptly by a cold front (and attendant jet mechanics - no doubt), is actually a kind of ear mark for me, for severe for Southern New England. On June 10 of 1987 something similar took place.

Under the 9am sky the air mass was in the low 60s by temperature and dewpoint. It was cloudy and rumbles of thunder occasionally permeated the air waves. Light showers gave into a heavier douse around 11am, and even triggered a severe warning. The cell(s) went just S of my location in central Middlesex County, with lots of thunder and some minor wind where I was.. That activity moved off, and by 12:30pm the skies began to open up. The sun came out, and the temperature soared. It was up around 87 by 5pm, with dew points that rose to 72F through much of the interior. At around 6 or so a small cluster of thunderstorms erupted out ahead of a cold front just west of ALB.. These quickly intensified and organized into derechio. This system roared down the Mohawk Trail with 70mph routine winds and large hail, and the closest thing to actual strobe lightning I had to this day ever seen - true continuous lightning, a large number of which was CG. In fact, speak of the devil, R.D. Sahl was up here at WHDH at the time, and when the news broke at 11pm later that evening he headlined with "Thunderstorms with cloud tops exceeding 55 thousand feet...". We lost power for all of 2 hours from that, but other areas of town were out for a couple/few days.

1953 was different in one respect because it clearly developed along the SRH saturation associated with the warm front. It's movement ESE more than less paralleling the boundary is highly indicative of that. The other angel on that comes as a question, was there any EML air mass involved in the warm sector. It is interesting to see that elevated meso ring with the wedge/stove-pipe hybrid tornado subtended beneath. That is, as others have said, very rare for this part of the country.

It is also noted that the previous day the exact same weather system spawn a mini outbreak in the state of Michigan, one of which was an F4 tornado in Flint. I have heard it said from other mets growing up that for severe in New England, look to Michigan.

[CoastalWx]

Yes ... it was, because R. D. Sahl is so unrecognizably young as a fledgling anchorman out of Hartford CT- amazing comparison. As well, the on-camera Met covering along side was just less than palpably unsure of himself, simultaneously wrapped in that news-caster unnatural parochial conservative dorkiness of the times. Toe-nail curling to watch to some degree...

R.D. made it up into the Boston media market before ultimately getting douche-bagged by the typical shananogans of the Big 3, and ended up over at NECN I believe. I was watching a Youtube that was a recording the 6pm news, and I was having trouble - then it hit me, that's that dude! Haven't seen or heard of that Met anywhere else, though.

Someone should do an excruciatingly tedious "Where Are They Now" for guys and gals like the Met. It would be hilarious. You know ...those extras in Hollywood for that matter...? Like, freeze frame, super-impose an arrow that points at some head in the scene, then do an extensive bio that holds nothing back. If it's good news, great! If the life shall we say ... wasnt' so great, all the gory details. Call the segment, "Persons who thought they had a chance to be famous", do the arrow thingy, then start the run-down.

Aaaanyway, one aspect about 1953 that I think is interesting is that frontal wedge appearance of the cyclone that came through. The warm front was draped NW/SE just NE of ORH, with a cold front (and attended squalline) over eastern NY. The low was up near Watertown or thereabouts. This configuration of a warm front/baroctropic air's nascent penetration followed abruptly by a cold front (and attendant jet mechanics - no doubt), is actually a kind of ear mark for me, for severe for Southern New England. On June 10 of 1987 something similar took place.

Under the 9am sky the air mass was in the low 60s by temperature and dewpoint. I was cloudy and rumbles of thunder occasionally permeated the air waves. Light showers gave into a heavier douse around 11am, and even triggered a severe warning. The cell(s) went just S of my location in central Middlesex County, with lots of thunder and some minor wind where I was.. That activity moved off, and by 12:30pm he skies began to open up. The sun came out, and the temperature soared. It was up around 87 by 5pm, with dew points that rose to 72F through much of the interior. At around 6 or so a small cluster of thunderstorms erupted out ahead of a cold front just west of ALB.. These quickly intensified and organized into derechio. This system roared down the Mohawk Trail with 70mph routine winds and large hail, and the closest thing to actual strobe lightning I had to this day ever seen - true continuous lighting, a large number of which was CG. In fact, speak of the devil, R.D. Sahl was up here at WHDH at the time, and when the news broke at 11pm later that evening he headlined with "Thunderstorms with cloud tops exceeding 55 thousand feet...". We lost power for all of 2 hours from that, but other areas of town were out for a couple/few days.

1953 was different in one respect because it clearly developed in SRH saturation associated with the warm front. It's movement ESE more than less paralleling the boundary is highly indicative of that. The angel on that is the question, was there any EML air mass involved in the warm sector. It is interesting to see that elevated meso ring with the wedge/stove-pipe hybrid tornado subtended beneath. That is, as others have said, very rare for this part of the country.

It is also noted that the previous day the exact same weather system spawn mini outbreak in the state of Michigan, one of which was an F4 tornado in Flint. I have heard it said from other mets growing up that for severe in New England, look to Michigan.

And I think the day before Michigan it produced a deadly tornado in either Kansas or Nebraska.

[HoarfrostHubb]

And I think the day before Michigan it produced a deadly tornado in either Kansas or Nebraska.

The Flint tornado death toll was just eclipsed by Joplin...Nebraska had 11 deaths from 1 tornado the day before. Ohio also had 17 deaths. Michigan had the 116 in Flint, plus 9 in 3 other tornadoes

RD Sahl FTW, that met in the old Bridgeport Tornado newscast was bizzare with the seemingly hand drawn papers for maps...

[tamarack]

As mentioned above, the damage in question is the 3rd pic in the original post. It is clearly F5 damage at first glance (NWS Taunton even states this in their presentation on the storm on the their site)...but the integrity of the structures were in question. That was Uncatena Ave in Worcester which is about 1 mile from me now. The original designation was F4 wayy back when they first came out with the fujita scale long after the tornado happened. When more pics of this came out after, they thought about switching it but they couldn't get good detail on the engineering of the buildings. They kept it at F4 (it likely would have been kept at F5 too if that had been the original classification). But since they couldn't really get better info, they never changed it.

Kind of like instant reply in the NFL - since there's not enough evidence to overturn, the original call stands. Too bad; like many from the Northeast, I'd like to have F5 "bragging rights."

Though the Uncatena Ave pic is the ones most discussed, I'd also cite the three in your post #9. The damage to the massive masonry at Assumption is something I've never noted in other tornado damage pics. It's far more impressive than knocking over the block walls at a big box store. I can recall reading descriptive language for strong tornados' damage to wood frame houses: At F3, the house is totalled and most of the debris left piled on the foundation. F4 moves the wreckage downstream a ways, but it still looks like pieces of a house and piles from each house so wrecked are mostly distinct. F5, in addition to the "Uncatena clean slabs", picks up debris, tears it into much smaller pieces and mixes together stuff from multiple dwellings, sifting it down such that it's nearly impossible to connect which debris came from which house. The 2nd and 3rd pics from post #9 seem to fit that description, though not quite as thoroughly as the classic Uncatena image.

and then Worcester replanted with a monoculture of Norway Maples...helping to fuel the Asian Longhorned Beetle infestation we are currently dealing with...

Norway maple is a plague on our streets (and its varietal Crimson King on our yards), not least because it's shade tolerant and an aggressive invader of adjacent woodlands. However, Asian longhorn beetle seems quite content with almost all hardwood species, especially maples, and has shown some preference for sugar maple. In Maine, we're still waiting for the other shoe to drop, as much of the 12/08 ice storm salvage/removal wood from ORH ended up in Maine biomass burners, after some millyard storage that gave any chipper-bypassed critters time to move into the Maine woods.

Nitpick: Wasn't Flint F5?

[Hoosier]

Nitpick: Wasn't Flint F5?

yes

[Typhoon Tip]

Kind of like instant reply in the NFL - since there's not enough evidence to overturn, the original call stands. Too bad; like many from the Northeast, I'd like to have F5 "bragging rights."

Though the Uncatena Ave pic is the ones most discussed, I'd also cite the three in your post #9. The damage to the massive masonry at Assumption is something I've never noted in other tornado damage pics. It's far more impressive than knocking over the block walls at a big box store. I can recall reading descriptive language for strong tornados' damage to wood frame houses: At F3, the house is totalled and most of the debris left piled on the foundation. F4 moves the wreckage downstream a ways, but it still looks like pieces of a house and piles from each house so wrecked are mostly distinct. F5, in addition to the "Uncatena clean slabs", picks up debris, tears it into much smaller pieces and mixes together stuff from multiple dwellings, sifting it down such that it's nearly impossible to connect which debris came from which house. The 2nd and 3rd pics from post #9 seem to fit that description, though not quite as thoroughly as the classic Uncatena image.

and then Worcester replanted with a monoculture of Norway Maples...helping to fuel the Asian Longhorned Beetle infestation we are currently dealing with...

Norway maple is a plague on our streets (and its varietal Crimson King on our yards), not least because it's shade tolerant and an aggressive invader of adjacent woodlands. However, Asian longhorn beetle seems quite content with almost all hardwood species, especially maples, and has shown some preference for sugar maple. In Maine, we're still waiting for the other shoe to drop, as much of the 12/08 ice storm salvage/removal wood from ORH ended up in Maine biomass burners, after some millyard storage that gave any chipper-bypassed critters time to move into the Maine woods.

Nitpick: Wasn't Flint F5?

Hard to imagine a scenario where foundation scouring were not an F5... Obviously style isn't a factor but even given those antiquated film conditions those are just as photogenic as just about any EF5 or F5 of history. Be that as it may, I once asked Dr Bluestein if there were any correlation between vortex diameter/structure and intensity and in addition to his telling me that was an outstanding question, the answer was also no. He'd seen ropes do F4 damage and stove pipers barely clear F2.

[ORH_wxman]

Hard to imagine a scenario where foundation scouring were not an F5... Obviously style isn't a factor but even given those antiquated film conditions those are just as photogenic as just about any EF5 or F5 of history. Be that as it may, I once asked Dr Bluestein if there were any correlation between vortex diameter/structure and intensity and in addition to his telling me that was an outstanding question, the answer was also no. He'd seen ropes do F4 damage and stove pipers barely clear F2.

The speed of a tornado can make a difference...at least I've heard. A slower moving tornado can cause more impressive damage than an equal tornado that moves faster due to increased exposure of the winds. I don't know the details of the differences though and perhaps they have done more descriptive studies since then.

[HoarfrostHubb]

Here is the NWS slideshow on the tornado.

Nice hailstone from Rutland, MA... Softball sized

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/box/papers/WorcesterTornado53_files/WorcesterTornado53.html

[ORH_wxman]

Here is the NWS slideshow on the tornado.

Nice hailstone from Rutland, MA... Softball sized

http://www.erh.noaa....rTornado53.html

A lot of the old recounts in the news papers and such described people saying "it was like baked potatoes falling from the sky", lol. Can't imagine that really around here.

[HoarfrostHubb]

Weird thing was on a couple of the NWS slides they say F5 damage...

I guess like the other poster said, it is like instant replay in the NFL, not enough evidence to overturn

[HoarfrostHubb]

A lot of the old recounts in the news papers and such described people saying "it was like baked potatoes falling from the sky", lol. Can't imagine that really around here.

lol... I've never seen larger than pea sized hail since I have lived here in Hubbardston.

The nickel sized hail I mentioned the other day was on the Pike

Have you ever looked at the newspapers themselves? I used to have a copy of the 50th anniversary item the Telegram put out, but that has since disappeared.

[ORH_wxman]

lol... I've never seen larger than pea sized hail since I have lived here in Hubbardston.

The nickel sized hail I mentioned the other day was on the Pike

Have you ever looked at the newspapers themselves? I used to have a copy of the 50th anniversary item the Telegram put out, but that has since disappeared.

Yeah I've looked at the old newspapers. Cornell University has an archive of old newspapers and its one of the craziest things I've ever seen. I used to use it all the time...it has newspapers back to the 1700s easily accessible. At least when I was going there.

I used to have the 50th anniversary telegram too but I have since lost it as well. Perhaps its buried somewhere in my stuff waiting to be found. I've seen quarters before for hail size here, I believe back in 2001 but it might have been 2000. I can't remember. I can't imagine anything bigger than golfballs here. I've seen softball and grapefruit sized hail in Texas.

[ORH_wxman]

Will...did that hit Winter Hill?

No, it missed by about half a mile, though I'm sure some of the outskirts of it fringed winter hill with pretty high winds. But the actual storm barely missed, it probably would have been an amazing view from the hill though.

[CT Rain]

A lot of the old recounts in the news papers and such described people saying "it was like baked potatoes falling from the sky", lol. Can't imagine that really around here.

The June 95 supercell in Tolland and Middlesex Counties was like that here. Baseball sized hail in a number of towns... in Essex and Deep River it lasted for 10 minutes. The amount of tree damage from the hail shocked me... no wind... but there were an incredible number of leaves on the ground.

[crownweather]

I am wondering if this is actually film of the '53 Worcester tornado or is David Brown of Channel 5 using "stock footage" from other tornadoes?? Some of the film looks like other tornadoes from the southeast US & Middle part of the United States from the 50s and 60s. With that said, it also seems to kind of match up with the pictures of the tornado and it was a very visible tornado, however, I cannot find and have never been able to find footage while the tornado was in progress (exception is Bill Hark's short clip in his Eastern Tornadoes video). The link is http://www.youtube.c...h?v=BmRwfTFqUNU . I guess I am hoping it is actual video, but seeing there are no other known video out there, I have my doubts

Thanks!!

[ORH_wxman]

I am wondering if this is actually film of the '53 Worcester tornado or is David Brown of Channel 5 using "stock footage" from other tornadoes?? Some of the film looks like other tornadoes from the southeast US & Middle part of the United States from the 50s and 60s. With that said, it also seems to kind of match up with the pictures of the tornado and it was a very visible tornado, however, I cannot find and have never been able to find footage while the tornado was in progress (exception is Bill Hark's short clip in his Eastern Tornadoes video). The link is http://www.youtube.c...h?v=BmRwfTFqUNU . I guess I am hoping it is actual video, but seeing there are no other known video out there, I have my doubts

Thanks!!

I've never seen any video of the tornado. The tornadoes in that clip do not appear to be of the Worcester event.

[Turtle]

slide 27:

ehh some sort of radar image at least

Wow, was that one of the first weather radar images ever taken? lol

This radar image came from MIT Lincoln as a research radar. The Worcester tornado image it captured was the fourth known image of a tornado as it happened. Amazing to think that this was taken in Massachusetts. This, along with the other early radar images of tornadoes, helped in the development and deployment of radar to the field to be used in real time warnings.

--Turtle

[Turtle]

Actually, this photo was from the Beecher/Flint tornado the day before (June 8, 1953). I have updated my show and HOPE that our IT at the office uploads it before the anniversary. I added some photos of Flint/Beecher (including this one), plus had to remove all references that the tornado was an F5. Thanks to the re-evaluation team that was held in 2005 (I believe), it was kept as an F4. (The photo above will be in my updated show.)

Dr. Greg Forbes was on that team (yes of TWC fame, and formerly of Penn State as I recall). I was invited to present at the National Weather Association Annual Meeting in Louisville a few years ago, That year, they had a special Historical themed presentation session of several national and regional major storms, and they felt that the Flint and Worcester tornadoes warranted this recognition. I re-tooled my Worcester show to include Flint, and Dr. Forbes was there (so was Dr. Joe Schaefer <sp?> recently retired from the Storm Prediction Center). They had interesting comments on their perspectives on these tornadoes. I had a lot of great feedback after that show.

<soapbox time> IMHO, with the research I did on this show, I truly feel this WAS an F5 tornado, as Will does. The debarked tree in the show was such evidence. The "no evidence" of the type of building construction and materials used is BS. When you look at the new show, I got some new photos of the damage of the BRICK building on Assumption College's (now Quinsigamond) campus. PLEASE...the tornado took off a large section of the 2nd and 3rd floors of that building!!! Many other buildings were of STRONG construction, even with NO records. <off my soapbox>

There is also at least one "new" photo of the tormado as well, one I know you guys will LOVE!!! I'll let you know if/when it gets updated on our website.

--Turtle

[Guvna]

If this isn't a formidable picture....This was the Flint/Beecher tornado the day before the Worcester tornado. Eerily similar????

I also thought that there was a brief video of the tornado taken in Southboro right before the tornado dissipated.

[HoarfrostHubb]

Thanks for the update and tease Eleanor! Can't wait to see it

With regard to the Assumption damage, supposedly the walls in some places were three feet thick. Could an F4 do damage like that to such sturdy masonry? I'm not disputing it, just wondering.

I was looking at airiel views of the Burncoat area and no trace of it was visible to my untrained eye. Amazing more did not die.

As Will stated, thank goodness for the people in Holden

[Typhoon Tip]

The speed of a tornado can make a difference...at least I've heard. A slower moving tornado can cause more impressive damage than an equal tornado that moves faster due to increased exposure of the winds. I don't know the details of the differences though and perhaps they have done more descriptive studies since then.

Re-analysis is tricky because obviously the further back one goes for a study the more anecdotal reliant they have to be. Those photos are right on the cusp of being useful but do fall short due to granularity - so they try to find records for construction practices for that housing development and can't find any... Not sure what else they can do.

The other thing is the "E" in the modern enhanced rating - how would that apply retrospectively? Since the modern adaptation of the scale I don't believe I have read of any retrospective analysis using it come to think about it. Interesting.

Eh, in the meantime, check out this piece of wood harpooned through a concrete curb from the recent Joplin tornado; I believe this photo came from the area where it was EF4 in intensity - kinda makes one wonder what fricken difference it makes when this can happen:

[OHweather]

Re-analysis is tricky because obviously the further back one goes for a study the more anecdotal reliant they have to be. Those photos are right on the cusp of being useful but do fall short due to granularity - so they try to find records for construction practices for that housing development and can't find any... Not sure what else they can do.

The other thing is the "E" in the modern enhanced rating - how would that apply retrospectively? Since the modern adaptation of the scale I don't believe I have read of any retrospective analysis using it come to think about it. Interesting.

Eh, in the meantime, check out this piece of wood harpooned through a concrete curve from the recent Joplin tornado; I believe this photo came from the area where it was EF4 in intensity - can makes one wonder what fricken difference it makes when this can happen:

Not to take the thread off topic, but this was pointed out in the Joplin thread. It looks like the wood might be going through a small pipe or something in the curve. Otherwise that pic is just unreal.

[Typhoon Tip]

Not to take the thread off topic, but this was pointed out in the Joplin thread. It looks like the wood might be going through a small pipe or something in the curve. Otherwise that pic is just unreal.

It's all good - this actually was emailed to me from a buddy not associated with any forums of any kind, and not a Met - I haven't seen the Joplin thread. I actually did consider doctoring - you pretty much can't make any assumptions about veracity and the internet these days; but, tornado annals are full of these kind of "playing card into a brick wall" stories that were true enough to at least nod to that photo.

When the F3 tornado went through Kalamazoo Michigan back '80 there were lawn chairs stuck to the back of a brick wall as though they were glued there - funny thing is, they were all on their feet against the wall, none of them upside down. It was like the tornado had a sense of humor.

[Ed Lizard]

IIRC,in his book, Dr. Howard Bluestein gives this tornado credit for his interest in tornadoes.

[Typhoon Tip]

IIRC,in his book, Dr. Howard Bluestein gives this tornado credit for his interest in tornadoes.

I met him back during the Northeastern Storm Conference of 1998...or was it '97... Real affable - no arrogance and quite inquisitive about individual's personal experiences in the field. He gave a slide show that dispelled his own misconception about tornadoes and mountains. He was hiking around 10,000' and stopped for a rest and a gulp, and when he peered out across the valley there was a long, sinuous rope tornado hanging out of a deck of high based CU... He later found that it produced F2 damage. Pretty neat story - imagine taking a hike to get away from it for a while and relax, only to see THAT.

[HoarfrostHubb]

Re-analysis is tricky because obviously the further back one goes for a study the more anecdotal reliant they have to be. Those photos are right on the cusp of being useful but do fall short due to granularity - so they try to find records for construction practices for that housing development and can't find any... Not sure what else they can do.

The other thing is the "E" in the modern enhanced rating - how would that apply retrospectively? Since the modern adaptation of the scale I don't believe I have read of any retrospective analysis using it come to think about it. Interesting.

Eh, in the meantime, check out this piece of wood harpooned through a concrete curb from the recent Joplin tornado; I believe this photo came from the area where it was EF4 in intensity - kinda makes one wonder what fricken difference it makes when this can happen:

We discussed that pic in the Joplin thread. People seem to think it was a piece of debris went into a small PVC drain hole in a curb. No way to prove it one way or the other unless someone took another pic... But I get the point.

There is one pic from the Worcester storm showing lumber as a missle

[OHweather]

It's all good - this actually was emailed to me from a buddy not associated with any forums of any kind, and not a Met - I haven't seen the Joplin thread. I actually did consider doctoring - you pretty much can't make any assumptions about veracity and the internet these days; but, tornado annals are full of these kind of "playing card into a brick wall" stories that were true enough to at least nod to that photo.

When the F3 tornado went through Kalamazoo Michigan back '80 there were lawn chairs stuck to the back of a brick wall as though they were glued there - funny thing is, they were all on their feet against the wall, none of them upside down. It was like the tornado had a sense of humor.

Not to be outdone, I believe there was a picture in the Joplin thread of a chair stuck in a concrete wall feet first.

Here it is:

http://www.americanwx.com/bb/index.php/topic/18858-devastating-tornado-strikes-joplin-missouri/page__view__findpost__p__716331

[HoarfrostHubb]

Sorry for missing the reply about Joplin. My daughter is distracting this time of day