Alert archive / Massachusetts / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1995

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 22, NWS Boston/Norton, MA

May 29, 1995Hampden County, Massachusetts

NWS Boston/Norton, MA issued this severe thunderstorm warning at May 29, 1995, 8:00 PM EDT for Hampden County, Massachusetts. It was in force for 45 min.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: May 29, 1995, 8:00 PM EDT (00:00 UTC)
Expired: May 29, 1995, 8:45 PM EDT
In force: 45 min
Issued by: NWS Boston/Norton, MA
Area: Whole counties

County Hampden County, MA

The radar

The Boston radar (KBOX), 125 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:03 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

The nearest sounding before it

Albany, NY (KALB), launched 00:00Z, 0.0 hours before the alert went out and 116 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 215 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -73 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1037 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 48 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 6 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 88 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: -0.0
Supercell composite: -0.5

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.

000 
TTAA00 KBOS 300001
SVRBOS
MAC013-300045-
 
BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA
800 PM EDT MON MAY 29 1995
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TAUNTON HAS ISSUED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  845 PM EDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...
 
IN WEST MASSACHUSETTS
 
   ...HAMPDEN COUNTY
 
AT 800 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR SHOWED A SEVERE
THUNDERSTORM NEAR HOLYOKE. THE STORM WAS MOVING EAST AT 40 MILES AN
HOUR. IT WILL REACH LUDLOW AROUND 815 PM AND PALMER BY 830 PM.
 
SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS PRODUCE DAMAGING WIND IN EXCESS OF 55
MPH...DESTRUCTIVE HAIL...DEADLY LIGHTNING...AND VERY HEAVY RAIN.
FOR YOUR PROTECTI2ON MOVE TO AN INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR
OF YOUR HOME OR BUSINESS.  HEAVY RAINS FLOOD ROADS QUICKLY SO
DON'T DRIVE INTO AREAS WHERE WATER COVERS THE ROAD.
 
WTB

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this severe thunderstorm warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

In the hours before

Special weather statement, May 29, 2:31 PM EDT, 5 hours 29 minutes before

MAZALL-501>504-RIZALL-501-502-CTZALL-292200-

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA
235 PM EDT MON MAY 29 1995

...SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ARE POSSIBLE ACROSS CONNECTICUT...RHODE
   ISLAND AND MOST OF MASSACHUSETTS LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND THIS
   EVENING...

NO SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCHES ARE IN EFFECT FOR SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND
AT THIS TIME.

A WARM FRONT WILL MOVE ACROSS THE REGION THIS AFTERNOON.  BEHIND THIS
WARM FRONT IS VERY WARM AND MOIST AIR.  THIS WARM...MOIST AIR WILL
COMBINE WITH AN APPROACHING COLD FRONT OVER WESTERN NEW YORK TO
PRODUCE SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING
ACROSS SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND.

AT 230PM A LINE OF STRONG TO SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS EXTENDED FROM
NEAR BURLINGTON VERMONT SOUTHWEST THROUGH BINGHAMTON NEW YORK AND
THEN THROUGH CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA.  THIS LINE IS MOVING SOUTHEAST
AT 45 MPH AND SHOULD REACH WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS AND NORTHWEST
CONNECTICUT BETWEEN 5PM AND 6PM EDT.

ACROSS CONNECTICUT...RHODE ISLAND AND MOST OF MASSACHUSETTS SOME OF
THESE THUNDERSTORMS MAY BE SEVERE WITH LARGE HAIL AND/OR DAMAGING
WINDS.  ACROSS CAPE COD AND THE ISLANDS NO SEVERE WEATHER IS EXPECTED
THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING...THOUGH THUNDERSTORMS MAY STILL CONTAIN
HAIL...STRONG WINDS AND HEAVY DOWNPOURS.

IF YOU ARE PLANNING OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES THIS AFTERNOON...PLEASE
KEEP ABREAST OF THE LATEST WEATHER FORECASTS AND CONDITIONS.  IF
THREATENING WEATHER APPROACHES GET TO A PLACE OF SAFETY.

CZEPYHA/HANLEY

The office that day

Everything else NWS Boston/Norton, MA issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 29, 8:02 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	BOX	Franklin	28 min
May 29, 8:14 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BOX	Worcester	46 min
May 29, 8:34 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BOX	Middlesex	41 min
May 29, 8:47 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BOX	Hampden	43 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Massachusetts, 1995 Every severe thunderstorm warning in 1995

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.