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The doom cloud that hit Somerville

By adamg on Tue, 06/13/2017 - 7:59pm
Monster storm approaches Somerville

See it larger.

Johnny Saylor captured the giant doom cloud that burst over Somerville this afternoon.

Neighborhoods: 
Somerville
Topics: 
Weather
Free tagging: 
Clouds


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Comments

By E on Tue, 06/13/2017 - 8:05pm.

I trust NWS is investigating whether a tornado landed. A lot of damage is being reported.

By SwirlyGrrl on Tue, 06/13/2017 - 10:30pm.

If there are central bursts with radial damage it will be a microburst. If the wind changed direction a lot and stuff is just strewn about, that's cyclonic.

By aldos on Wed, 06/14/2017 - 12:13am.

It is neither a tornado nor a microburst (wherein damage would be confined to a small area). The correct term for what happened here is 'downburst'.

By adamg on Tue, 06/13/2017 - 10:13pm.

By aldos on Wed, 06/14/2017 - 12:00pm.

Given that the storm came from the NW, and this photo is taken looking SW SE on Somerville Ave. It must be from after the storm had already passed, or else it's a photo of a different cloud.

By Ron Newman on Wed, 06/14/2017 - 6:17am.

The camera is in or near Wilson Square and is pointed towards Sacramento Street.

By aldos on Wed, 06/14/2017 - 12:00pm.

That's what I meant-- this is looking in the opposite direction of where the storm came from.

By frobot on Wed, 06/14/2017 - 8:20am.

I watched it from Allston, where we thankfully didn't get hit by much. But I did watch what looked like a poorly formed funnel cloud pass almost directly overhead, slightly east of me. There was obvious visible rotation, and the radar image at that time showed a hook echo - indicative of a mesocyclone (aka a supercell). I could see a hail shaft in the distance as well.

IMAGE(http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p154/frosho/740E3215-01D8-4799-88FE-1B512358AD9D_zpswjoobkny.png)">http://s127.photobucket.com/user/frosho/media/740E3215-01D8-4799-88FE-1B...

By DTP on Wed, 06/14/2017 - 8:42am.

Can confirm we got hail on Winter Hill. Didn't see anything tornado-esque, though I was only watching out my front window.

There was an awful lot of debris on the ground afterward though - many tree branches, some 4-5 ft long.

By Michael on Wed, 06/14/2017 - 8:53am.

I got on the 89 at Sullivan JUST as the deluge started, we got pelted with hail as we crossed McGrath and headed up towards Temple St, and it was just a light drizzle when I got off on Winter Hill. Thank you, MBTA, for not ruining at least one person's travels this week!

By Ron Newman on Wed, 06/14/2017 - 10:23am.

I wasn't out in it (thankfully) but it clattered against all of my windows, around 5:15 pm.

By Ron Newman on Wed, 06/14/2017 - 10:24am.

 

By DTP on Wed, 06/14/2017 - 10:42am.

It's radar - for all intents and purposes it indicates 'intensity' of a storm, on a green-to-red scale.