HurricaneJosh Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 I cant get this link to embed, but here is a yahoo video of stunning damage in Monson, from the air: http://in.news.yahoo...n-25418710.html Finally! This is what we've needed-- a good overview of the heavily damaged areas in Monson. It's impressive, for sure. A couple of those houses are really flattened. It is at least EF3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ag3 Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 Finally! This is what we've needed-- a good overview of the heavily damaged areas in Monson. It's impressive, for sure. A couple of those houses are really flattened. It is at least EF3. For sure an EF3. Maybe borderline EF4, in some places. Didnt think the damage was this bad, but this aerial video is stunning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavisStraight Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 I was in Monson for a couple hours yesterday and a lot of the houses which were destroyed definitely looked old. There were some on a hillside which looked to be 1800s, and a lot of early 1900s. Also, a lot of 2 family looking homes, tall and wide. The whole downtown area that Ryans talking about are house built prior to 1900. There a house in Brimfield built in 1993 that was wiped off the map, the owners were huddled in the basement under the stairs when the house was demolished. Ill see if I can find the video of this house and post the pic. Bethany Road in Monson has newer houses but I havent seen pics of that area yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamrivers Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 I was in Monson for a couple hours yesterday and a lot of the houses which were destroyed definitely looked old. There were some on a hillside which looked to be 1800s, and a lot of early 1900s. Also, a lot of 2 family looking homes, tall and wide. Monson Center is very old - and that's where the center of the tornado went through. One of the last really unspoiled town centers at least around here. The rest of Monson is fairly new - 1960s or after - as Monson had some suburban sprawl....my high school guidance counselor, a teacher, and a couple of people I work with in Springfield all live in the newer areas of Monson. They are all okay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 Thankfully for people in Monson, Brimfield, etc there was good warning. Westfield and West Springfield had no warning out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamrivers Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 I think regardless, the worst damage or highest intensity was definitely in Monson and Brimfield...maybe Sturbridge although like Kevin said I couldn't get to much when I was out there - I was frankly surprised that I got to the direct path and the wall of trees I posted in that photo.... although that was a private road off of Exit 2 on I-84...it looked like on the other side of I-84 in Sturbridge it was even more intense - Days Inn had a wall exposed according to Twitter - and it kept going for a couple miles after that.. gonna head out that way before going to work today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 I think regardless, the worst damage or highest intensity was definitely in Monson and Brimfield...maybe Sturbridge although like Kevin said I couldn't get to much when I was out there - I was frankly surprised that I got to the direct path and the wall of trees I posted in that photo.... although that was a private road off of Exit 2 on I-84...it looked like on the other side of I-84 in Sturbridge it was even more intense - Days Inn had a wall exposed according to Twitter - and it kept going for a couple miles after that.. gonna head out that way before going to work today. I saw some pictures from Southbridge of a flattened subdivision too. Event the 1989 tornadoes didn't produce F2/F3 damage over such a long path Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattmfm Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 Thankfully for people in Monson, Brimfield, etc there was good warning. Westfield and West Springfield had no warning out. Wondering if in the PNS BOX will comment on warn time verification. Tornado very well could have been on the ground before the warning was even issued. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisM Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 Thankfully for people in Monson, Brimfield, etc there was good warning. Westfield and West Springfield had no warning out. my brother and I were driving up a street in Springfield screaming at people to get inside and they had NO idea what we were talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamrivers Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 Thankfully for people in Monson, Brimfield, etc there was good warning. Westfield and West Springfield had no warning out. And this is a question I think the NWS is going to have to answer. I don't want to be highly critical of them as I have tremendous respect for the job they do, but this was a pretty obvious situation. It doesn't look like there was tremendous loss of life....but the person that died in West Springfield because a tree fell on their car may not have had to die if there was ample warning time and they had seeked shelter or at least got out of the way. Barnes ASOS was reporting "Tornado" literally and there was no warning issued for a good 7 minutes after that (4:30....thanks for the correction) - kinda lost track at that point, was busy calling my family who had no idea what was going on. Discussion on MassLive said that Barnes had their air raid sirens going but there was no tornado warning issued yet. I doubt the Springfield media will take a look at this, but it is something that should be discussed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 Wondering if in the PNS BOX will comment on warn time verification. Tornado very well could have been on the ground before the warning was even issued. My estimate is the tornado touched down around 4:20 or so in Westfield about 10 minutes before the warning came out. I think everyone was focuses on the supercell east of Northampton at the time and the southern supercell sort of fell through the cracks? KBAF reported the FC at 4:23 and radar shows nearly 125 knots of g2g at one point at about 4:15 west of Westfield probably pre tornadogenesis. The warning came out at 4:30. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 yeah an EF3 can collapse all exterior walls of a well-constructed dwelling...however the expected damage from a low-end EF4 is all walls (including interior) collapsed. A wiped clean foundation is 200mph...EF4/EF5 boundary. Just as a tidbit of precedence... I know that the F3 from 1998 that hit Mechanicsville, NY (Albany suburbs) they used the fact that pick-up trucks were moved X-amount of distance, landing on their roofs in a pile as one of the reasons for the F3 rating. This was rated F3 damage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 In high school I worked at the Sturbridge Host Hotel during the summers... know the area very well and have quite a few friends still there. A buddy from that area just emailed this photo to me from Sturbridge. I don't know where in Sturbridge or who took the photo... though knowing the person I highly doubt he took it. I will give credit as soon as I find out. Or it could just be a photo he found by the AssociatedPress or something. Sturbridge, MA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJBASHB Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 Keene cell near Peterborough: Heading south through Jaffrey, Nh Heading west on Rt 2 in Fitch. Tornado warned cell near Winchendon. After the storm moved through Ashburnham. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 Sweet photos JJBASHB... were there other confirmed tornadoes aside from the RT 20 corridor? Any of those along northern MA or near ORH get touchdowns? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJBASHB Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 Sweet photos JJBASHB... were there other confirmed tornadoes aside from the RT 20 corridor? Any of those along northern MA or near ORH get touchdowns? Thanks, I didn't come across anything around here. I saw tree debris falling on I290 in Worcester (the elevated section of highway/no trees around) but it was minimal. Couldn't get any shots in the hail/heavy rain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sojitodd Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 I cant get this link to embed, but here is a yahoo video of stunning damage in Monson, from the air: http://in.news.yahoo...n-25418710.html that was impressive footage. Very surreal how some homes are pretty much disintegrated, and then you have the one at the end that is still fairly whole, but off it's foundation and flipped upside down. That would have been one hell of a wild ride-if you survived, that is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HurricaneJosh Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 that was impressive footage. Very surreal how some homes are pretty much disintegrated, and then you have the one at the end that is still fairly whole, but off it's foundation and flipped upside down. That would have been one hell of a wild ride-if you survived, that is. Seriously! Like being inside a dollhouse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radarman Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 I attached an Xband velocity shot of the Tornado near Monson. The values are in knots. We fold at roughly 75kts, so some of the max values may have just started to fold near the couplet. Regardless, this is about 140kt gate to gate shear at fairly low elevations. Very impressive. Although this was the strongest tornado obviously, the number of suspected funnel clouds or EF0 tornadoes I saw in less populated areas were truly astonishing. More than I've ever seen even operating a 4 radar network in Oklahoma for 5 years. These were likely not reported and ground truth is hard to come by, but the signatures were everywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattmfm Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 I attached an Xband velocity shot of the Tornado near Monson. The values are in knots. We fold at roughly 75kts, so some of the max values may have just started to fold near the couplet. Regardless, this is about 140kt gate to gate shear at fairly low elevations. Very impressive. Although this was the strongest tornado obviously, the number of suspected funnel clouds or EF0 tornadoes I saw in less populated areas were truly astonishing. More than I've ever seen even operating a 4 radar network in Oklahoma for 5 years. These were likely not reported and ground truth is hard to come by, but the signatures were everywhere. Awesome screen grab. Hopefully BOX is able to verify some ground truth, as I just (like you indicated) there were some other touchdowns in the area north of the strongest tornado, as well as up in N MA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 I attached an Xband velocity shot of the Tornado near Monson. The values are in knots. We fold at roughly 75kts, so some of the max values may have just started to fold near the couplet. Regardless, this is about 140kt gate to gate shear at fairly low elevations. Very impressive. Although this was the strongest tornado obviously, the number of suspected funnel clouds or EF0 tornadoes I saw in less populated areas were truly astonishing. More than I've ever seen even operating a 4 radar network in Oklahoma for 5 years. These were likely not reported and ground truth is hard to come by, but the signatures were everywhere. Great shot... thanks for sharing. Do you know what elevation that is AGL? I'd like to try to find a place to download radar data for GRLevel2/3.... apparently I didn't archive my stuff yesterday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radarman Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 Great shot... thanks for sharing. Do you know what elevation that is AGL? I'd like to try to find a place to download radar data for GRLevel2/3.... apparently I didn't archive my stuff yesterday A little over 2km AGL. Its about 36 kilometers away, near the edge of the radar range, and in Massachusetts I generally use 3 degrees tilt as the baseline. We aim lower in Oklahoma, but don't have large hills to contend with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattmfm Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 Two shots below from @AndreaWBZ in Brimfield, MA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastalWx Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 I attached an Xband velocity shot of the Tornado near Monson. The values are in knots. We fold at roughly 75kts, so some of the max values may have just started to fold near the couplet. Regardless, this is about 140kt gate to gate shear at fairly low elevations. Very impressive. Although this was the strongest tornado obviously, the number of suspected funnel clouds or EF0 tornadoes I saw in less populated areas were truly astonishing. More than I've ever seen even operating a 4 radar network in Oklahoma for 5 years. These were likely not reported and ground truth is hard to come by, but the signatures were everywhere. That's pretty sweet. Thanks for posting that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TalcottWx Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 Did not realize this was a chase story thread also... Well heres mine. I had a job interview @ 2 in Charlestown (which I got by the way ) and after the interview ended I got right on at storrow drive and started heading west. At that time the best cells around were just around the NW mass vt border area and with Scott's tip to head there I agreed it was a good direction to head in. I drove right up route 2 to Leominster where I stopped to put 20 bucks of gas into the car. By the time I did all of that Springfield was under a tornado warning and the only impressive cell was well to my NW near Keene or somewhere in NH. Again Scott said it was probably time to head towards Worcester and I agreed. As I went down 290/190 or whatever it was there was definite rotation trying to get its act together due west of northern Worcester. Also, by that time Springfield was getting hit hard or about to get hit hard by the tornado. I had a decision to make. It was either head to intercept that already tornadic cell about 20 miles south of orh or wait for the hook to my west. I decided to wait for the hook to my west because It was a better financial decision I thought rather then drive even further. At first I stopped in Quinsigamond with Will's help and set up there. I was there for about 15 minutes and then I realized there was a pretty damn good chance that the tornado may or may not go right over my head if it continued on its trajectory. I asked Will to send me a text and he agreed it would be ground zero. But for my windshield and my lives sake I decided to drive 1-2 miles south to Green Hill Park and setup to try and get south of any rotation so I would not get into a bad situation. Will agreed that the rotation was more broad and less tight but still had the potential to become rainwrapped. For a short time that short developed quite the hook on radar and I got really excited. Visibility started to drop to well less than in mile in mod to heavy rain failling downwind of the storm. Lightning was intense and I was worried that maybe I didn't head far enough south and I was in a trouble spot. However, the storm actually started to jog south and I flew out of Green Hill because I was worried I was in trouble. I actually also talked to Scott for a time and he advised me that there was a couplet to my west, but he was away from the computer. I thanked him and wished him good luck in traffic, I was being quite the weenie in that phone call I might add. So shortly after that I was driving in treacherous downpours and could not see a thing. I also lost battery on my phone right when the storms roll in to add drama to the situation. However I studied the map A bit and had a slight idea where I was and shot southeast because the last couple frames I had noticed that it was shooting southeast. I got to Shrewsbury street and by luck I looked out of the corner of my eye there was the wall cloud. It was raining at the time and it really snuck up on me, something you would not see until it was within a half hour. It was rotating and everything, not a rain free base, maybe a rain full base? (LOL) It was pretty much pouring but sure enough I could still see it and nothing was imminent. I had a 5% charge on my phone and called the National Weather Service and told them I saw a rotating wall cloud but it was shrouded in rain. For whatever reason they had a misinterpretation and noted it as a funnel cloud. Definitely not what I said! If my phone didn't die right after the phone call I would have gotten a picture.. Man was the thing moving! That was pretty much the extent of the storm for me. Lots of lightning, rain, and that infamously awesome thing called a wall cloud. I was happy to stay out of the hail. When I got more charge on the way back on rt 9, I looked at the old frames and the rotation at 0.5 tilt pretty much went right over shrewsbury street. It goes to show a little study of the area can save you if your technology fails! Caught that wall cloud with complete luck. Man what a beautiful sight it would have been if that rain wasn't falling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lava Rock Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 We lived in sturbridge for 6 years till 2 years ago. Those pics are mind-blowing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damage In Tolland Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 Two shots below from @AndreaWBZ in Brimfield, MA That's how most of the trees on either side of 84 in Sturbridge looked like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattmfm Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 Monson, from @CurtNickisch: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattmfm Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 My estimate is the tornado touched down around 4:20 or so in Westfield about 10 minutes before the warning came out. I think everyone was focuses on the supercell east of Northampton at the time and the southern supercell sort of fell through the cracks? KBAF reported the FC at 4:23 and radar shows nearly 125 knots of g2g at one point at about 4:15 west of Westfield probably pre tornadogenesis. The warning came out at 4:30. odd... "The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado touched down in Springfield at 4:32 p.m" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyewall Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 If I had to venture a guess I would say ef-3 with the damage in Monson. I wonder if anyone caught the tornado on camera while it maxed out in that area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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