Tornadoes · United States · Massachusetts · 2017
EF1 tornado, Goshen, Massachusetts, February 25, 2017
This EF1 tornado ran 2.9 miles across Hampshire County on February 25, 2017, touching down at 7:18 PM EST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $250,000 of property damage.
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 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
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
- EF1
- Date
- February 25, 2017
- Touchdown
- 7:18 PM EST (00:18 UTC)
- Lifted
- 7:21 PM EST (00:21 UTC)
- On the ground
- 3 minutes
- Path length
- 2.9 miles (4.7 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $250,000
- County
- Hampshire County
- Touchdown point
- 42.409, -72.797
- Lift-off point
- 42.451, -72.794
- Record number
- 1702251818-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Low pressure moving through Eastern Canada dragged a cold front through New England during the night of the 25th. Showers and thunderstorms ahead of the cold front moved through Western Massachusetts, then dissipated as they moved farther east.
A tornado touched down in Goshen at Pine Road, just to the east of Hammond Pond. Several pine trees were snapped mid-way and two homes were damaged by trees falling onto them. A portion of Route 9 was closed between the Fire Station and the intersection with Route 112. There was significant tree damage on the southwest shore of Highland Lake, with numerous trees snapped half-way up from their bases and many uprooted. The tornado crossed Highland Lake and imagery received after-the-fact from town officials also indicated significant tree damage on the northeast side of Highland Lake from Camp Howe southward along Headquarters Road into the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) State Forest. The damage was consistent with 90 mph wind gusts, with a rating of EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.|The tornado was on the ground for 2.9 miles with a maximum width of 100 yards. It lasted from 718-721 PM before lifting up briefly and then touching down again in Conway, MA.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:18 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BOX |
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 forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:55 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 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
11.7 hours after it, 90 km from the path. February 26, 2017.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -89645 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 25 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1115 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 52 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 49 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 100 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.8 K/km
The radar
The Albany radar (KENX), 105 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:16 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:28 UTC | TSTM WND GST 69 | Hancock | Berkshire, MA | WEATHERNET6 SPOTTER |
| 23:39 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Coltsville | Berkshire, MA | TREE DOWN CHESHIRE RD ALLANDALE CTR |
| 23:41 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Egremont Plain | Berkshire, MA | TREE AND WIRES DOWN RT 41 |
| 23:43 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Lanesborough | Berkshire, MA | TREE DOWN ON SOUTH STATE RD |
| 23:43 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Sheffield | Berkshire, MA | WIRES DOWN ON RTE 41 |
| 23:49 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 N Berkshire | Berkshire, MA | TREE ON CAR IN GREEN ACRES RT 8 |
| 23:49 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 N Berkshire | Berkshire, MA | TREES DOWN AT WHITNEYS FARM RT 8 |
| 23:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | New Marlborough | Berkshire, MA | MULTIPLE TREES AND WIRES DOWN |
| 23:51 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Adams | Berkshire, MA | WIRES DOWN PARKING LOT |
| 23:51 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Zylonite | Berkshire, MA | ROOF OF BOUNTY FAIR RESTAURANT DAMAGED. |
| 00:01 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Otis | Berkshire, MA | TREE AND WIRES DOWN RT 23 |
| 00:17 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Chesterfield | Hampshire, MA | LARGE TREE DOWN ON SUGAR HILL RD |
| 00:17 UTC | TSTM WND GST 67 | Goshen | Hampshire, MA | MULTIPLE TREES AND WIRES DOWN ON MAIN ST |
| 00:18 UTC | TORNADO | Goshen | Hampshire, MA | AN EF-1 TORNADO TOCHED DOWN BRIEFLY IN GOSHEN. SEVERAL PINE TREES WERE SNAPPED MID-WAY AND TWO HOMES WERE DAMAGED BY TREES FALLING ONTO THEM ON PINE ROAD...JUST TO THE EAST OF HAMMOND POND. |
| 00:20 UTC | TORNADO | Conway | Franklin, MA | *** 1 INJ *** AN EF-1 TORNADO TOUCHDOWN IN CONWAY WITH A PATH LENGTH OF 5 MILES. 12-14 HOMES WERE SEVERELY DAMAGED AND HUNDREDS OF TREES WERE KNOCKED DOWN. |
| 00:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Conway | Franklin, MA | *** 1 INJ *** TREE ON A HOUSE ON SOUTH DEERFIELD RD. OTHER TREES DOWN NEAR TOWN HALL. TREE THROUGH WINDSHIELD OF A CAR. |
| 00:31 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Conway | Franklin, MA | MULTIPLE TREES AND WIRES DOWN BLOCKING GRAVES ROAD |
| 00:31 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Conway | Franklin, MA | SEVERAL TREES DOWN ON HOOSIC ROAD AND MAIN POLAND ROAD |
| 00:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Ashfield | Franklin, MA | TREE DOWN ON A HOUSE AT 2011 CONWAY RD. |
| 00:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Ashfield | Franklin, MA | TREE DOWN ON CREAMERY RD |
| 00:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Bernardston | Franklin, MA | TREE DOWN ON A BUILDING ON FOX HILL RD |
| 00:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Montague | Franklin, MA | TREE DOWN ON WIRES ON SWAMP RD |
| 00:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Montague | Franklin, MA | TREES DOWN ON NORTH LEVERETT ROAD |
| 00:36 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Conway | Franklin, MA | TREE BLOCKING SHELBURNE FALLS RD BY CEMETERY HILL RD. |
| 00:37 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Ashfield | Franklin, MA | TREES AND WIRES DOWN ON PFERSICK ROAD. ALSO TREE DOWN ON CAR CAUSING SEVERE DAMAGE TO CAR |
| 00:39 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Conway | Franklin, MA | MULTIPLE TREES AND WIRES DOWN ON SHELBURNE FALLS RD. |
| 00:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Conway | Franklin, MA | MULTIPLE TREES DOWN ON BARTELS FERRY ROAD. |
| 00:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Deerfield | Franklin, MA | DOWNED TREE BLOCKING RIVER RD IN SOUTHERN PART OF TOWN. |
| 00:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Deerfield | Franklin, MA | TREE AND WIRES DOWN ACROSS OLD MAIN RD. TREE AND WIRES DOWN ACROSS UPPER RD. |
| 00:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Greenfield | Franklin, MA | TREES AND WIRES DOWN ON MOUNTAIN ROAD |
| 00:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Shelburne | Franklin, MA | TREE AND WIRES DOWN ON SOUTH SHELBURNE RD |
| 00:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Sunderland | Franklin, MA | TREE DOWN ON SOUTH MAIN ST |
| 00:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Warwick | Franklin, MA | TREE AND WIRES DOWN ON ROBBINS RD NEAR RTE 78 |
| 00:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Whately | Franklin, MA | TREE DOWN IN LEFT LANE OF I-91 NORTHBOUND |
| 00:52 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Gill | Franklin, MA | TREES AND WIRES DOWN ON SOUTH CROSS RD |
| 00:52 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Gill | Franklin, MA | WIRES DOWN ON MAIN RD. TREE DOWN ON ROUTE 2. |
| 00:57 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Northfield | Franklin, MA | MULTIPLE TREES AND WIRES DOWN |
| 00:57 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Turners Falls | Franklin, MA | WIRES DOWN ON TURNERS FALLS RD. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2017 tornado in MassachusettsEvery tornado in Massachusetts since 1950Warnings in force in Massachusetts nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of February 25, 2017
4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 25 | 2:35 PM EST | EF2 | Luzerne, PA | 12.5 | 500 | $300,000 | ||
| February 25 | 3:06 PM EST | EF1 | Charles, MD | 8.4 | 125 | |||
| February 25 | 3:15 PM EST | EF1 | York, PA | 1.7 | 100 | $200,000 | ||
| February 25 | 7:23 PM EST | EF1 | Franklin, MA | 4.6 | 200 | 1 | $400,000 |
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.