The 1995 Memorial Day Tornado

Local newspaper article from May 31, 1995 recounts the devastating Memorial Day twister.

It was May 29th, 1995, Memorial Day. It was an oppressively hot and humid day. My parents had recently moved to West Stockbridge to start a family. My dad, a Trooper for the Massachusetts State

Police, was just getting ready to work an evening shift. It was around 6:45 pm and my parents looked out the window and saw a flock of geese running through their yard "as if something was chasing them". They lived on a hillside and had never seen waterfowl in their yard. Where they lived it was still sunny out, but you could see the storm clouds not far away. A little after 7 my dad got into his cruiser and was heading to work. He heard over the scanner that the town of Great Barrington had been hit by a tornado. He advised to dispatch that he was nearby and was responding to the scene. Within five minutes he had made it to Great Barrington. It was eerily dark, especially since the sun had not set yet, and the sky had a green tinge to it. There was still debris and paper falling from the sky when my dad arrived. The rest of that day of course my dad was very busy with recovery efforts, but the next day my dad returned to the scene and took many photos. These photos made it into an album that I remember looking through when I was very young. I included some of these photos.

Top photo shows the remnants of a neighborhood, and the bottom two photos show the response of the State Police, National Guard, and the media. Photos from my family's album.

The tornado was one of the worst to ever hit Massachusetts with records dating back to the 1700s, and it was by far the worst to ever hit Berkshire County. The tornado was officially an F4 on the Fujita Scale which means it had winds of 207-260 mph and left devastating damage. The tornado had an estimated width of around 300 yards and tracked to the east for 7 miles of destruction. It touched down at 7:06 pm and soon after tossed a car that was on Route 23 1,000 feet into the woods. Three people were in the car, two students and a staff member returning to a local private school. The tornado sent a tractor trailer truck into a department store,  knocked over dozens of headstones in the cemetery, and shredded thousands of trees. You can still see the scar from the tornado on the hillside. All of this happened within 10 minutes. By 7:16 it all had ended. 24 million dollars in damage had been done. Amazingly, the three people that were in the car were the only ones that lost their lives that day. This is credited to meteorologists picking up rotation in the supercell on radar and issuing a tornado warning 21 minutes before the tornado touched down. 24 people were injured in the storm. Over 100 homes and businesses were damaged or completely destroyed. Most notably the Great Barrington Fairgrounds, known for horse racing, was a complete loss. To this day the remnants of the fairground remain abandoned, however there have recently been talks of returning it to its former glory.

 Radar Image from the storm that produced the F4 tornado.

The storm itself was formed by a combination of factors. A warm front pushed through early in the morning so it was a cloudy start to the day, but the sun quickly burned through, this was important. With the sun breaking through so early, it allowed for temperatures to soar into the upper 70s early in the day. Dewpoints ranged from the 60s into the 70s. These conditions alone are capable of spawning thunderstorms without even taking upper air conditions into consideration. In the upper air there was very strong wind shear. Lastly, a cold air pocket aloft associated with the approaching cold front moved over the region. All of this created the perfect storm of instability that led to the formation of the tornado.

Sources:

“Fujita Scale.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, February 20, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujita_scale.

 Johnson, Kirk. “Berkshires Storm Kills 3, But Leaves Scores in Awe.” The New York Times. The New York Times, May 31, 1995. https://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/31/us/berkshires-storm-kills-3-but-leaves-scores-in-awe.html.

CBS6Albany.com: May 29 Hillsdale, NY-Great Barrington, MA Tornadoes. Accessed March 4, 2020. http://slapointewx.com/wrgb/weather_historical_daily/1995/Tornadoes_95.html.

“1995 Great Barrington Tornado.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, January 3, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Great_Barrington_tornado.