Tornado Check in - Not in Kansas, right?

I've been listening to the news all night got me wondering about our members in the western part of Mass. How's it going out there - y'all all okay?

Not more than a 15 mph breeze & some 1" diameter hail, but watching the sky yesterday, I could tell something wasn't right. At 5pm it was pitch dark, & all the night lights were on. Then a few lightning strikes less than 100' from my house. Tripped a breaker & knocked out power for about 10 seconds ... then came the hail. That's when I was keeping my eyes peeled ... but no twisters here.

Monson, Sturbridge, & Brimfield got hit hard out this way, and especially Springfield - they go the worst of it.

Smitty,
Glad to hear it bypassed you. We were sideswiped back in '80 and like you, I knew something was wrong. ITornado came through just after dark set in. It sounded wrong, smelled wrong, tasted wrong and had my hair standing on end. Didn't know what happed until the next morning. Changed course about a half of a mile from us and turned north. Lifted the top two stories off an old three story Victorian and sat it back on the wall plates right where it belonged. Looked really strange with the curtains hanging out over the outside of the windows Of course you knew something big happened ... the barn was in pieces sitting on the other side of the highway!

Not to be outdone - OK, hardly Kansas Dorothy.

We had a little twister that deposited an 80' ash tree on my roof and moved a BIG barbeque from one side of the deck to the other (no wheels) and then smashed it into my GMC truck. The plastic and paper mache that the new trucks are made from did not enjoy the interaction. The side of the tractor shed had new CDX with MANY screws in it. The storm punched a hole in the CDW and left the screws intact. Scary? Hardly. We were watching TV and did not notice (8PM). The house built in about 1890 with 8x3" beams (hand hewn) on 8" centers and then 1" (real) oak boards before the roofing. Getting the tree off the roof - now that was youtube stuff and I missed my chance. The Cat 955 lifted it off as it was leaning against the roof and my ancient 25 ton digger spun it around to miss the power lines. That was probably the closest I came to death (although I have to think back as in my youth I did so many stupid things). You mean the storm? No, but my inept handling of the digger brought the tree crashing down right next to the diggers cab. -2' to the left was certain death.

The fourth most deadly tornado ever was in... you guessed it... MA ... Natick I believe. So we do get these little dramas (I say little in case someone from Kansas is laughing his head off).

The tornado of '53 held the record for the most killed in the USA by one tornado - up until a few weeks ago when Joplin, MO was hit.

The '53 one went for something like 70 miles wiping out everything in it's path. Started somewhere in western MA then ended in Southboro. If that had happened today there would have been hundreds killed. Population has to be 100 times what it was then.