30 years ago today, a destructive tornado tore through a small Massachusetts town
There wasn't much left of the Great Barrington Fairgrounds after a tornado struck the night of May 29, 1995.
RYAN, DAVID L.GLOBE STAFF PHOTO
The sheer force of the Great Barrington tornado toppled tall trees like matchsticks on May 29, 1995.
RYAN, DAVID L.GLOBE STAFF PHOTO
It was the strongest tornado that the state of Massachusetts had seen since the June 9, 1953, twister that struck Worcester.
During that evening of May 29, 1995, which was the observed Memorial Day that year, a cluster of severe thunderstorms had pushed into Berkshire County and triggered a tornado warning from the National Weather Service office out of Albany, N.Y.
At first, the supercell that spawned the Greater Barrington tornado actually had produced a prior tornado in Eastern New York, an F2 that traversed 15 miles. As the storms pushed over the Massachusetts state line, huge amounts of moisture and wind shear from neighboring storms helped the supercell restrengthen, spawning the larger, deadly tornado.
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Numerous vehicles and buildings were impaled by flying debris from trees, fences, and other timber. Multiple buildings lost their roofs or flat-out collapsed, including the local fairground, a supermarket, and a gas station.
Bud Rodgers takes a breather after helping to clear trees from the yard of his neighbor, who, along with his family, escaped injury when their roof collapsed during the Great Barrington tornado of 1995.
CHIN, BARRY GLOBE STAFF PHOTO
Radar imagery on the evening of May 29, 1995, shows a supercell (deep red) pushing through Great Barrington.
NWS
The tornado was designated as F4 strength under the original Fujita scale, which had a strict and only wind threshold to measure tornado strength. An Enhanced Fujita Scale was implemented in 2007, taking into account damages to building structures and wind and there's a good chance that the Great Barrington twister would have been deemed an EF5 tornado by today's standards.
The Enhanced Fujita Scale takes into account wind speed as well as building damage. The wind speed threshold is also lower than the original Fujita scale.
NOAA
Tornadoes form within supercell thunderstorms with wind shear, a change in direction and speed of wind as you move higher into the atmosphere. Ample moisture will make the air light enough and be lifted vertically, which can create a rotating column of air or tornado.
Changes in directional wind shear as air rises vertically into the atmosphere will initiate rotation.
Boston Globe
Strong updrafts will tilt the tube of rotating air upright, forming into a tornado.
Boston Globe
Ken Mahan can be reached at
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USA Today
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- USA Today
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Track Erin's progress Dinah Voyles Pulver covers climate change and the environment for USA TODAY. She's written about hurricanes, tornadoes and violent weather for more than 30 years. Reach her at dpulver@ or @dinahvp on Bluesky or X or dinahvp.77 on Signal.
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