For those of you not playing along at home or who are, realistically, following your own weather patterns, Boston is currently under a Tornado Watch and a Severe Thunderstorm Warning till 8:00pm. There is already a possibility of a Tornado touchdown in one place in Western MA and one place in NH.
There is a LOT of Tornadic Activity, and some seriously huge super cell storms. I know for a lot of you in Tornado Alley this probably sounds silly, but for New England, this is a big deal. Golf Ball sized hail is highly unusual here. It just doesn’t happen, though today it already has.
Geoff has his police meeting tonight and I have my rehearsal. Both places have basements, though getting to the actual buildings may be dicey depending on when the storms actually land on us. Right now the storms are wreaking havoc on the western and central parts of the state. Straight line winds up to 100mph have already caused problems.
I did pop my head out of the house to be kind and warn the roofers and got covered in gravel and asphalt for my troubles. Thanks, guys. I hope you get struck by lightening. But not till after you clean up my deck. Sheesh. Jerks.
Anyway, everyone, stay safe, stay away from your windows, and if you get any good hail pics let us know.
~Kelly
ETA: 5:17 pm- 2 tornadoes have touched down and both have spent a long time on the ground. One is on the ground right now in Brimfield. That’s right folks, where we just went for vacation. It’s moving east at 40 mph. The far edge of the super cell is moving into Boston right now. That’s just rain, thunder, and a nice light show. The real business of this storm is still at least an hour out.
To put it into radar perspective, we’re in green now, the hot pink and purple where the real action is, that’s an hour and a half drive away. The tornado has internal speeds of 100+ mph. Woo?
ETA: 5:32 pm- Middlesex County now has a Tornado Warning and Boston has ordered all city parks cleared and all baseball games and other outdoor activities canceled. All Boston restaurants with outdoor seating have been ordered to bring their seating and tables indoors. I have never seen this happen in all the years I’ve lived here, and that’s been a long time. 16 years.
The Books are Taking Over... 
Got home safe and no damage to speak of in Malden. There was a broken street sign outside main entrance to Dana-Farber as I was waiting for cab around 10:30pm…There’s an auto body shop in Sturbridge that got very damaged & it is just down street a ways from Publick House, so hope they are okay. Campground in Brimfield got flattened. What an insane day.
I was desperately hoping that the weed trees in the back yard would get blown away or at least into you-know-who’s back yard, but no such luck. Glad you made it home in one piece. I hope this is it for the season, you know?
~Kelly
LOL that would have been some weather-related justice indeed. Yes, let’s hope. One of my colleagues at work live on Charlton/Sturbridge line, just around corner from the house my grandfather built — 30 trees down on their property but house and family are ok. One of their neighbors — a couple with a 3 month old baby — went into the basement and when they came up their house was completely gone. Unreal.