Tornadoes · United States · Massachusetts · 2013

EF0 tornado, Baconville, Massachusetts, September 1, 2013

Name: EF0 tornado, Baconville, Massachusetts, September 1, 2013
Start: 2013-09-01T22:25:00.000Z
End: 2013-09-01T22:26:00.000Z
Location: Baconville, Massachusetts

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Franklin County on September 1, 2013, touching down at 6:25 PM EDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
EF2111 to 135 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.
EF3136 to 165 mph
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
EF5over 200 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: EF0
Date: September 1, 2013
Touchdown: 6:25 PM EDT (22:25 UTC)
Lifted: 6:26 PM EDT (22:26 UTC)
On the ground: 1 minutes
Path length: 0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width: 10 yards (9 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
County: Franklin County
Touchdown point: 42.331, -72.353
Lift-off point: 42.331, -72.352
Record number: 1309011625-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An upper level disturbance moved over southern New England bringing showers and thunderstorms to the region. Precipitable water values over two inches indicated a very moist atmosphere; in addition, weak winds at the mid levels resulted in very slow moving storms. Both of these things led to torrential rainfall and flash flooding. Convergence at the surface and a significantly unstable environment resulted in a shower producing a waterspout over the Quabbin Reservoir in New Salem, Massachusetts. A Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) employee at the reservoir was able to snap several photos of the waterspout and reported that it never moved onto land.

A Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation employee observed a waterspout on Quabbin Reservoir in New Salem, MA. He was able to snap two pictures of the storm, one showing a funnel and another showing the funnel extended down to the water. The time has been approximated based on radar imagery. The waterspout was very short lived, never hit land, and did no damage and injured no people. Winds aloft were not conducive for tornadic development, but the environment was unstable and a surface front was moving through the region.

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

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Boston/Norton, MA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Sep 1, 3:08 PM EDT, 3 hours 17 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Sep 1, 3:08 PM EDT, 3 hours 17 minutes before

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Hazardous weather outlook, Sep 1, 4:35 AM EDT, 13 hours 50 minutes before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA
435 AM EDT SUN SEP 1 2013

CTZ002>004-MAZ002>024-026-NHZ011-012-015-RIZ001>008-020845-
HARTFORD CT-TOLLAND CT-WINDHAM CT-WESTERN FRANKLIN MA-
EASTERN FRANKLIN MA-NORTHERN WORCESTER MA-CENTRAL MIDDLESEX MA-
WESTERN ESSEX MA-EASTERN ESSEX MA-WESTERN HAMPSHIRE MA-
WESTERN HAMPDEN MA-EASTERN HAMPSHIRE MA-EASTERN HAMPDEN MA-
SOUTHERN WORCESTER MA-WESTERN NORFOLK MA-SOUTHEAST MIDDLESEX MA-
SUFFOLK MA-EASTERN NORFOLK MA-NORTHERN BRISTOL MA-
WESTERN PLYMOUTH MA-EASTERN PLYMOUTH MA-SOUTHERN BRISTOL MA-
SOUTHERN PLYMOUTH MA-BARNSTABLE MA-DUKES MA-NANTUCKET MA-
NORTHERN MIDDLESEX MA-CHESHIRE NH-EASTERN HILLSBOROUGH NH-
WESTERN AND CENTRAL HILLSBOROUGH NH-NORTHWEST PROVIDENCE RI-
SOUTHEAST PROVIDENCE RI-WESTERN KENT RI-EASTERN KENT RI-BRISTOL RI-
WASHINGTON RI-NEWPORT RI-BLOCK ISLAND RI-
435 AM EDT SUN SEP 1 2013

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTHERN
CONNECTICUT...CENTRAL MASSACHUSETTS...EASTERN
MASSACHUSETTS...NORTHEASTERN MASSACHUSETTS...SOUTHEASTERN
MASSACHUSETTS...WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS...SOUTHERN NEW
HAMPSHIRE...NORTHERN RHODE ISLAND AND SOUTHERN RHODE ISLAND.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT.

SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL DEVELOP TODAY. THERE IS A LOW RISK
FOR ISOLATED FLASH FLOODING.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY.

THE THREAT OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE MONDAY INTO
TUESDAY. A FEW OF THESE STORMS MAY CONTAIN HEAVY RAINFALL LEADING
TO FLOODING. A FEW STRONG TO SEVERE STORMS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE ON
MONDAY AND TUESDAY.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

ANZ230>237-250-251-254>256-020845-
BOSTON HARBOR-CAPE COD BAY-NANTUCKET SOUND-VINEYARD SOUND-
BUZZARDS BAY-RHODE ISLAND SOUND-NARRAGANSETT BAY-BLOCK ISLAND SOUND-
COASTAL WATERS EAST OF IPSWICH BAY AND THE STELLWAGEN BANK NATIONAL
MARINE SANCTUARY-MASSACHUSETTS BAY AND IPSWICH BAY-
COASTAL WATERS FROM PROVINCETOWN MA TO CHATHAM MA TO NANTUCKET MA
OUT 20 NM-
COASTAL WATERS EXTENDING OUT TO 25 NM SOUTH OF MARTHAS VINEYARD AND
NANTUCKET-
COASTAL WATERS FROM MONTAUK NY TO MARTHAS VINEYARD EXTENDING OUT TO
20 NM SOUTH OF BLOCK ISLAND-
435 AM EDT SUN SEP 1 2013

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR MASSACHUSETTS COASTAL WATERS
AND RHODE ISLAND COASTAL WATERS.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT.

SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL MOVE ACROSS THE WATERS TODAY.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY.

SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL MOVE ACROSS THE WATERS MONDAY AND
TUESDAY.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

FOR THE LATEST UPDATES...PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBPAGE AT
WWW.WEATHER.GOV/BOSTON

YOU CAN FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK AT
WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/US.NATIONALWEATHERSERVICE.BOSTON.GOV

YOU CAN FOLLOW US ON TWITTER AT
@NWSBOSTON

In the hours before

Local storm report, Sep 1, 6:19 PM EDT, 6 minutes before

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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

10.4 hours before the tornado, 127 km from the path. September 1, 2013.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.

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. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: 0 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 327 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 0 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 13 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 30 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 83 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0
0-3 km lapse rate: 4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Albany, NY (KALY), 00:00Z

1.6 hours after it, 127 km from the path. September 2, 2013.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.

Hodograph

Mixed-layer CAPE: 1022 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -11 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 665 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 767 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 12 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 1 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 13 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0
0-3 km lapse rate: 5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Chicopee/Westover (CEF), 21 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.

The radar

The Boston radar (KBOX), 109 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:26 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2013 tornado in Massachusetts Every tornado in Massachusetts since 1950 Warnings in force in Massachusetts now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of September 1, 2013

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
September 1	6:42 PM CDT	EF0	LaSalle, IL	1.6	50

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.