Days after a tornado touched down in Holden, National Weather Service forecasters are set to visit the Central Massachusetts town to get an up-close look at the damage the Saturday storm caused.
Forecasters will seek to determine how strong the tornado was, where it began and where it ended, weather service meteorologist Andrew Loconto explained. An on-scene storm survey represents the next step in the process after a radar-confirmed tornado.
“The radar can infer there was damage done from a suspected tornado,” Loconto said. Now, forecasters are working to put “the rest of the puzzle together as far as details.”
“That requires us to go out and look at the damage,” he said.
Radar showed a tornado in Holden moving east at 40 mph at 4:07 p.m. on Saturday, according to the weather service. Several trees in the area of Bailey and Willow Brook roads were knocked over by whipping wind on Saturday.
Forecasters waited for Monday, when they expected largely tranquil conditions, to conduct the survey out of concern for safety, Loconto explained.
“When you go on a survey, you don’t know what you’re going to run into,” he said.
The weather service is hoping to share more information about the tornado on Monday, depending on what surveyors encounter in the field.
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Saturday severe storms in Mass.
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