Tornadoes · United States · Massachusetts · 1997
F2 tornado, Monterey to North Otis, Massachusetts, July 3, 1997
From Monterey to North Otis, this F2 tornado ran 4.5 miles across Berkshire County on July 3, 1997, touching down at 6:05 PM EDT and reaching 600 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $1.5 million of property damage.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado
Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.
F3158 to 206 mph
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
F5261 to 318 mph
Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.
Unrated
The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.
The record
- Rating
- F2
- Date
- July 3, 1997
- Touchdown
- 6:05 PM EDT (22:05 UTC)
- Path length
- 4.5 miles (7.2 km)
- Path width
- 600 yards (549 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $1.5 million
- County
- Berkshire County
- Touchdown point
- 42.170, -73.220
- Lift-off point
- 42.220, -73.150
- Record number
- 905
What the Weather Service recorded
On July 3, a fast moving cold front crossed Berkshire County during the afternoon and evening hours. The front initiated four tornadoes. The Richmond F1 tornado is a continuation of the F2 tornado which occurred in Columbia County. This tornado downed trees and produced minor damage to one house as it diminished in the Richmond area. The tornado in the Town of Florida began at the intersection of South County Road and Savoy Road. The F1 tornado tracked eastward and terminated just south of Florida near state route 2. The tornado removed all the shingles off the roof of a residence and a prefabricated steeple was blown off a church. Many trees were also downed along its path. The F2 tornado which began in the Monterey area started at the intersection of Wellman Road and New Marlborough Road. The tornado tracked northeast across state route 23 and Lake Garfield to Hayes Pond where it merged with the second tornado. At the north end of Hayes Pond the tornado diminished. This tornado downed hundreds of trees, damaged ten to twenty homes and destroyed two vehicles. The damage was most extensive along the north shore of Lake Garfield at Elephant Rock Road, Hopi Road, Mt. Hunger Road and Norwalk Acres Road. The second F2 tornado began near the intersection of Tyringham Road and West Center Road. It then tracked across Hayes Pond where it momentarily merged with the other tornado. The tornado then proceeded northeast where it ended near the intersection of state route 8 and Merrit Road. This tornado produced extensive tree damage, destroyed one vehicle and damaged fifteen to twenty homes. The most extensive damage occurred along West Center Road near Hayes Pond. Baseball size hail was also observed at Hayes Pond with this storm. Two people were struck by lightning at the Great Barrington Fairgrouds. They were both hospitalized and released.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The air that afternoon
The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.
Albany, NY (KALY), 12:00Z
10.1 hours before the tornado, 76 km from the path. July 3, 1997.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 901 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -44 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 897 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 598 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 32 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 22 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 94 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 101 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.3
- Supercell composite
- 1.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.6 K/km
The surface observations
Pittsfield Municipal (PSF), 27 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 1997 tornado in MassachusettsEvery tornado in Massachusetts since 1950Warnings in force in Massachusetts nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of July 3, 1997
9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 3 | 5:23 PM EDT | F1 | Columbia, NY | 5.3 | 100 | $60,000 | ||
| July 3 | 5:36 PM EDT | F1 | Berkshire, MA | 1.3 | 73 | $10,000 | ||
| July 3 | 5:58 PM EDT | F1 | Franklin, MA | 4.5 | 100 | $50,000 | ||
| July 3 | 6:11 PM EDT | F2 | Berkshire, MA | 3.7 | 600 | $1.5 million | ||
| July 3 | 6:58 PM EDT | F1 | Franklin, MA | 8.5 | 100 | $50,000 | ||
| July 3 | 7:13 PM EDT | F1 | Cheshire, NH | 2.0 | 100 | 1 | $500,000 | |
| July 3 | 7:17 PM EDT | F1 | Columbia, NY | 1.2 | 200 | $150,000 | ||
| July 3 | 6:20 PM CDT | F2 | Berkshire, NY to MA | 1.5 | 100 | $600,000 | ||
| July 3 | 7:55 PM EDT | F2 | Hillsborough, NH | 2.0 | 250 | $250,000 |
What this means
Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.