EF0 tornado, New Boston to Blandford, Massachusetts, August 2, 2020

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

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

2. EF186 to 110 mph

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

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

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

6. 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.

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

EF0

Date

August 2, 2020

Touchdown

6:58 PM EDT (22:58 UTC)

Lifted

7:20 PM EDT (23:20 UTC)

On the ground

22 minutes

Path length

8.4 miles (13.5 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$54,000

Counties

Berkshire and Hampden counties

Touchdown point

42.091, -73.077

Lift-off point

42.165, -72.947

Record number

2008021658-01

A strong warm front moving northeast across southern New England and an approaching short wave trough combined to produce a weak tornado in western Massachusetts during the early evening hours of Sunday, August 2nd, 2020. This tornado touched down just southeast of Sandisfield, MA before crossing into Hampden County, resulting in mainly downed trees and minor home damage.

A strong warm front moving northeast across southern New England and an approaching short wave trough combined to produce a weak tornado in western Massachusetts during the early evening hours.

A National Weather Service survey team concluded that a weak, narrow, but relatively long tornado occurred during the evening on Sunday, August 2 in western Massachusetts. It began in the southeast part of Sandisfield just west of south Main Street in Berkshire County just before crossing into Hampden County at Tolland Road (see StormData for Massachusetts, Central and East) after just 0.25 miles. The tornado continued for a total path length of 7.8 miles with a maximum path width of 100 yards. In Sandisfield, some tree damage was observed on Carpenter Lane and on South Main street at and just north of the Mile 4 marker. A home there had its upper window blown in, shingles ripped off, and the portico was lifted upward, enabling the supporting post to be shifted outward. Some corn stalks were flattened and a neighbor's fence was blown down. The EF-scale rating was EF-0, with estimated maximum wind speeds of 80 mph.

A National Weather Service survey team concluded that a weak, narrow, but relatively long tornado occurred during the evening on Sunday, August 2 in western Massachusetts. It began in the southeast part of Sandisfield (Berkshire County), moved northeast across northwest Tolland (Hampden County), and lifted in the southern portion of Blandford (Hampden County). Damage was mainly to trees but some minor home damage occurred in Sandisfield. The EF-Scale rating was EF-0, with estimated maximum wind speeds of 80 mph. The tornado was on the ground in a mainly continuous path for a little more than 8 miles, with a maximum width of approximately 100 yards.||The tornado began in Sandisfield, just west of South Main Street. Some tree damage was observed on Carpenter Lane and on South Main Street at and just north of the Mile 4 marker. A home there had its upper window blown in, shingles ripped off, and the portico was lifted upward, enabling the supporting post to be shifted outward. Some corn stalks were flattened and a neighbor's fence was blown down. ||In Tolland, trees were observed to be blown down in various directions from East Otis Road to the west shore of Twining Pond, where drone footage provided by an amateur radio operator showed a couple of dozen trees blown down in a narrow swath. Continuing to the northeast, many trees were downed on Belden Road and on a narrow portion of Schoolhouse Road just north of Belden Road. The damage became sporadic as it ended with some wires downed in Blandford, just west of the north end of the Cobble Mountain Reservoir. One tree was observed down near the Blandford Highway Department on Otis Stage Road (Route 23).

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

49 minutes of warning. NWS ALY issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:09 UTC, 49 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:10 UTC and running to 02:00 UTC.

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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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.

The Albany radar (KENX), 100 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:54 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2020 tornado in MassachusettsEvery tornado in Massachusetts since 1950Warnings in force in Massachusetts nowThe forecast where you are

3 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.