Tornado Swarm in Massachusetts!

[Zappit]

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/06/tornado_tears_through_pioneer.html

Don't know if you saw this, but western MA was hit by an outbreak of tornadoes at about 4pm yesterday. The first one touched down in my town, on the opposite side of town, though. A lot of the surrounding communities really got the crap kicked out of them by these storms, though. Got incredibly lucky. Everyone in the family was okay.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43242642/ns/weather/

There's a video of one particularly bad twister forming in the video in the article- it tore through West Springfield, Springfield, and Westfield. My dad was in the building where the camera was mounted that caught the video - on the twentieth floor - in a glass building. It just passed by his building, but he could see it clear as day as it raged past.

 

[HCGLNS]

Which might be related to the events in Nova Scotia later that evening.



Early estimates are upwards of 8000 lightning strikes in the two hours the storm lasted. My entire house was shaking with the thunder.

 

[doomdragon6]

Were the tornadoes as bad as the ones in Alabama? We were declared a State of Emergency.

(Note: After re-reading, this sounds like a one-up comment-- I am legitimately curious.)

 

[Zappit]

There is a state of emergency in multiple towns. Monson got hit hardest, I think - it flattened a good number of buildings and took out the town's only grocery store. West Springfield was torn up a bit, and Springfield got hit bad in the downtown area - gas leaks and major delays getting emergency help there to close those leaks. The national guard was called in last night. Nowhere near the toll of the Alabama tornadoes, but we still got hit hard.

 

[AmazingP]

My prayers and thoughts are with these places and individuals directly hit by a series of tornadoes. As one of the devastating power of nature, this is something hard to live by.

 

[Dave]

Tell me about it. I live in Nebraska. We know our tornadoes.

 

[Jay]

.... well we get snow for 9 months a year.

 

[Hailey Knight]

They're assaulted by multiple giant vacuum cleaners.

(Note: After re-reading, this sounds like a one-up comment--it is.)

As a one-down comment, in my county if it snows for more than 90 minutes it's a state of emergency.