EF0 tornado, Paxton to West Berlin, Massachusetts, September 6, 2025

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

September 6, 2025

Touchdown

4:25 PM EDT (20:25 UTC)

Lifted

4:27 PM EDT (20:27 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.6 miles (1.0 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$5,000

County

Worcester County

Touchdown point

42.385, -71.664

Lift-off point

42.388, -71.653

Record number

2509061425-01

27 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BOX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 104 mph.

• Side of 300 year old birch snapped off. Trunks of pine trees snapped. Images from Paxton.
• Pine tree trunks snapped. House in area damaged with three trees impacting it.
• Pines lying flat on the ground spread out varying north to east.
• Trees uprooted, varying between NE and NW.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A cold front moved through Southern New England in the afternoon bringing a round of severe storms which caused a wide swath of wind damage through MA with some in western CT. Some severe hail occurred in northern MA and a single storm dropped 5 tornadoes in central MA which led to widespread tree damage along but limited damage to structures.

A tornado briefly touched down near Arrowhead drive in Paxton, crossing Richards Ave and likely lifting after causing significant tree damage in its path. Several softwood trees|snapped at the trunk or uprooted.

A tornado briefly touched down near a section of South Rd in Holden, MA. Damage was limited to several softwood trees being uprooted.

EF1 tornado briefly touched down over Willow Brook Rd in Holden causing significant tree damage.

EF1 tornado touched down west of Barnes Hill Road in Berlin, MA and traveled ENE crossing Derby road and West street. Many soft or hardwood trees snapped at the trunk or uprooted.

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

20 minutes of warning. NWS BOX issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:05 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 17:16 UTC and running to 22:34 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 19:44 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.

Fitchburg (FIT), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Boston radar (KBOX), 64 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:24 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 2025 tornado in MassachusettsEvery tornado in Massachusetts since 1950Warnings in force in Massachusetts nowThe forecast where you are

4 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.