A look at damage from Tuesday’s powerful storm

GREENFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – Tuesday night’s storm did not produce a tornado in Western Massachusetts, but the impact was still significant.

People in Greenfield woke up Wednesday with some work to do after a severe thunderstorm with wind gusts upwards of 60 miles per hour rolled through as the sun set Tuesday evening.

“It got cloudy and the wind kinda picked up and all of the sudden when it hit the trees were bent over and the rain was falling sideways,” said Mark, a Greenfield resident.

Paul, another Greenfield resident told 22News, “Lotta lightning. This tree behind us I don’t know if it was a lightning strike or what but it was pretty hairy there for about an hour.”

Residents likened the winds to a tornado, but that’s up to the National Weather Service to decide.

“The first thing we look for is does the radar indicates that a tornado touched down,” explained Torry Dooley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boston.

That presents an issue in western Massachusetts which is far enough away from radar that it’s not as accurate as they would like. So, they rely on damage reports from Town Emergency Managers to get a clearer picture.

“When you have straight-line wind a lot of the debris and trees are all falling down in the same direction. When you have tornadic wind damage the debris and stuff left behind is very chaotic. Also, if there is a convergence if the wind is pulling in towards a center point,” said Dooley.

The reports did not indicate such damage from Tuesday’s storm, so an official survey wasn’t ordered, but that doesn’t mean the damage wasn’t significant or that straight-line winds are any less dangerous.

“Wind is wind. It doesn’t have to be a tornado to seek shelter,” warned Dooley. “During a severe thunderstorm warning, you do want to take shelter.”

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