Tornado

Today we experienced a tornado coming through our area. The picture above was sent to me by a friend, whose friend had posted it on Facebook. It is Rt. 20 in Westfield, a couple of miles from where I work.

Earlier in the afternoon, it started to get dark and windy and one of my co-workers happened to look at the on-line weather and told us that there was a tornado warning for our area. When Paul came to pick me up at work he said that definitely a tornado had come through our area.

Luckily, there was no damage to my neighborhood, but just about a mile or so down the road there was damage, huge trees down where the tornado had come through.

The South End of Springfield really got hit hard. So many people displaced from their home.

This is such a rare occurrence in this area of the country. Watching the news on TV that evening seemed so surreal.

Update 6/6/11: The National Weather Service is classifying the tornado that touched down in Westfield and moved east 39 miles through West Springfield, Springfield, Wilbraham, Monson, Brimfield and Charlton as an EF3, with wind speeds of 136 to 165 MPH! The tornado was on the ground for over an hour.

2 weaker tornadoes touched down later in the day, one over Wilbraham and one over North Brimfield. Both of these tornadoes were rated EF1, with maximum wind speeds of 90 mph.