F1 tornado, West Brookfield, Massachusetts, July 23, 2002

1. F040 to 72 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. F2113 to 157 mph

   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.

4. 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.

5. F4207 to 260 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. 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.

7. 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.

Rating

F1

Date

July 23, 2002

Touchdown

3:15 PM EDT (19:15 UTC)

Path length

0.4 miles (0.6 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Worcester County

Touchdown point

42.230, -72.150

Lift-off point

42.230, -72.150

Record number

212

A line of severe thunderstorms moved across much of the Bay State during the afternoon and early evening, producing widespread wind damage. There were numerous reports of downed trees, power lines, and large branches from the Connecticut River Valley to the Worcester Hills, Merrimack Valley, and the eastern Massachusetts coastline from Marblehead to Hingham. Amateur radio operators measured wind gusts to 71 mph in Easthampton and to 59 mph in West Springfield as the storms moved through. In the city of Boston,winds estimated near 60 mph blew down scaffolding on a school building, while in Salem winds of similar magnitude ripped siding off a house.A tornado briefly touched down in West Brookfield at 315 pm, and there were no injuries reported. The tornado had an approximate path width of 75 yards, a path length of about one-half mile, and was only on the ground for about 30 seconds, as determined by a National Weather Service survey of the area. The intensity of the tornado was determined to be an F1 on the Fujita damage scale, which corresponds to wind speeds between 73 and 112 mph. It is likely that winds were closer to the upper region of that range. The tornado formed over the northeast portion of Lake Wickaboag and traveled to the east, dissipating just to the east of the portion of Wickaboag Valley Road that is adjacent to the lake. Microburst damage was evident for about another two miles east of where the tornado circulation ended.Eyewitnesses reported that a curtain of water was drawn from the lake as high as 50 feet into the air, and traveled east. A portion of it hit a house by the lake, causing its roof to fly off and become embedded to a tree across the street. There was also a brief flash as power lines were downed on Wickaboag Valley Road. Although most downed trees were facing southwest to northeast, there was some evidence of trees blown down to the north and northwest near the lake.The same thunderstorm was responsible for another microburst in Spencer. Large trees were uprooted, some of which landed on cars and houses. Wind speeds were estimated to be near 100 mph based upon the damage observed.Another severe thunderstorm produced a microburst in Concord, as determined by a National Weather Service survey, which occurred between 345 and 400 pm. Straight line winds on Monument Street were estimated near 75 mph. Numerous large trees were snapped off and uprooted, which in turn knocked down many electric poles and wires. A couple of large trees were snapped off, and fell on a house on Monument Street. The microburst was approximately one-half mile wide and about one and a half miles long.

Brief F1 touchdown

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 15:22 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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.

Worcester (ORH), 23 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Boston radar (KBOX), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:15 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2002 tornado in MassachusettsEvery tornado in Massachusetts since 1950Warnings in force in Massachusetts nowThe forecast where you are

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.