Landsat Image of Tornado Track
June 7, 2011 7:34 PM   Subscribe

The EF3 tornado on June 1st cut a 39 mile path through heavily forested Massachusetts. The path is clearly visible in this Landsat image from NASA.
posted by Seymour Zamboni (16 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Poster's Request -- loup



 
Oddly enough the overriding sensation I got looking at the earth was, my god that little thing is so fragile out there.

Mike Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, interview for the 2007 movie In the Shadow of the Moon.
posted by Godspeed.You!Black.Emperor.Penguin at 7:50 PM on June 7, 2011


Has this been overlaid onto Google earth? That would be great. Also, is there a similar shot of Joplin?
posted by Jumpin Jack Flash at 8:01 PM on June 7, 2011


Here's a before-and-after, if you like.
posted by tapesonthefloor at 8:02 PM on June 7, 2011 [3 favorites]


God
Hates
Forests
posted by charlie don't surf at 8:04 PM on June 7, 2011


A sizeable group of friends were camping over the long weekend out there, and just three days later their campground had been reduced to toothpick-trees and flattened camp buildings. It's surreal and weird. I live on the ocean, man!
posted by kpht at 8:09 PM on June 7, 2011


It's amazing that the track seemed to follow the route of least population. A half mile or so further north or south would have tracked it through much more population.
posted by Jumpin Jack Flash at 8:18 PM on June 7, 2011


I'm relieved to learn that Old Sturbridge Village managed to remain pretty much unscathed. We went there quite often when I was growing up, both for school field trips, and also day trips with the family. I was way into the whole historic reenactment park thing even before it was hip, around the time of the US bicentennial in '76.
posted by crunchland at 9:03 PM on June 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


Wow. Insane.
posted by serazin at 9:09 PM on June 7, 2011


through heavily forested Massachusetts

The tornado hit downtown Springfield, MA, among other highly populated areas. The center of Monson, MA, a small town of about 10,000 residents, was pretty much demolished. Hundreds of buildings were destroyed and the cleanup has barely begun. Today's Boston Globe reported that 90 million in homeowner insurance claims have been filed so far.

It ain't just woods out here, folks.
posted by camyram at 9:17 PM on June 7, 2011


Some of the ground-level photos are heartbreaking. (That article is mostly a consolidation of various AP photos of the damage, with some before-and-after shots.)

Monson, MA, was particularly hard-hit, and there were a number of very nice historic buildings that will probably not be reconstructed. It says something about the freakish nature of the storm when you see century-old buildings in ruins afterwards.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:24 PM on June 7, 2011


Amazing. On Saturday was driving to Hartford CT and right around Sturbridge on the Mass Pike everything was normal then there was a section about 300 yards long where all the trees were broken and knocked down all the highway signs then there was almost a perfect line and all the trees were undamaged and everything was back to normal. Having grown up in MA my whole life and never seeing a tornado it was so weird to see all the damage and how centralized it is. It's almost if somebody had picked up a stick and drew a line through southern MA.
posted by lilkeith07 at 9:37 PM on June 7, 2011


It ain't just woods out here, folks.

The Sturbridge tornado and the Springfield tornado were separate events, no?

</proud Springfieldian>
posted by zvs at 10:03 PM on June 7, 2011


One of my Facebook friends lives in Springfield - next door to the condo I used to own. He's been reporting tornado news for the past week. Quite a few homes in Springfield were damaged including the MacDuffie School. Thanks for this image - family friends are near Sturbridge and I want to make sure they're OK.
posted by bendy at 11:38 PM on June 7, 2011




I'm relieved to learn that Old Sturbridge Village managed to remain pretty much unscathed. We went there quite often when I was growing up, both for school field trips, and also day trips with the family. I was way into the whole historic reenactment park thing even before it was hip, around the time of the US bicentennial in '76.

My wife and I (we live in Springfield, but not near downtown) went out to Old Sturbridge Village on Saturday after the tornado. No obvious damage in the site proper, though there were bits of house insulation on the ground. At the edge of the park, though, you could clearly see the tornado track. Splintered trees everywhere. It missed OSV, but not by much.

And yeah, Springfield, Monson, and Brimfield got hit hard. Donations can be made here.
posted by Legomancer at 6:20 AM on June 8, 2011


I grew up right In the tornados path, it tore up houses that were three doors down from mine with less than 5 minutes warning. Pretty crazy. I almost feel bad but western mass is a hellhole so....
posted by youthenrage at 9:01 AM on June 8, 2011


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