Damaging Winds and Lightning Strikes in Massachusetts, May 31, 1998

A severe thunderstorm moving through northern Worcester County resulted in the deaths of two men in their twenties in Winchendon. They were killed when thunderstorm winds gusting to an estimated 60 to 70 mph blew a tree down on a car travelling on Route 202, as reported by local police. Large tree limbs were blown down and electric power was knocked out in Templeton and trees and wires were reported down in Phillipston on Royalston Road. In northern Middlesex County, two trees and a number of tree limbs and wires were knocked down in Pepperell. One falling tree totalled a car, resulting in minor injury to one person, as reported by police. In Essex County, trees were reported down in Haverhill and Methuen, as per police and a spotter. A three-family house was struck by lightning and set on fire in Methuen. A different severe thunderstorm occurring at about the same time as the storm farther to the east resulted in wind damage in the town of Orange in Franklin County, where two trees were blown down and a third tree landed on a truck, damaging the roof and windshield. In Hampshire County, in the town of Hadley, lightning started a fire which destroyed a barn -- no injuries were reported.