Tuesday, June 9, 1953 was just another day in New England. The day dawned clear and seasonably cool in the Boston area. Newspaper headlines shouted about a deadly rash of tornadoes that had raked Ohio and Michigan the previous day, killing over 140 people. The deadliest tornado hit Flint, Michigan, killing 116. People read the stories and sympathized with the victims, but tornadoes did not hit New England, so they didn’t worry.
In Washington, at the newly formed Severe Weather Unit of the U.S. Weather Bureau, the meteorologists had not slept very much during the past two days, working around the clock to issue experimental tornado forecasts. They had successfully predicted the outbreak the day before, issuing tornado alerts before the twisters hit. Major tornadoes did not hit New England. That was the prevailing meteorological thought of the day, so the weathermen were not concerned about the storm system that had wreaked havoc over the past two days. The 996 millibar low was located in southern Ontario. A warm front was pushing through New England. The airmass changed quickly behind the front, as dewpoints jumped from the 50s into the 60s to near 70 degrees. The temperature soared into the middle 80s as the warm front cleared the coast. It suddenly felt hot and humid.
At the Weather Bureau Office in Buffalo, meteorologists did mention the possibility of a tornado in their morning forecasts. But in Boston, the meteorologists stopped short of predicting that tornadoes might form. Their forecasts instead called for warm temperatures with the chance of severe thunderstorms. Calling for a tornado might induce a panic, as had been feared for all those years that there was a ban on the word “tornado†in official forecasts. And after all, major tornadoes did not strike New England.
In Worcester, close to Boston, people took to the outdoors to enjoy the fine late spring weather. At 4:25 p.m., boaters on the Quabbin Reservoir in Petersham watched in amazement as a huge funnel descended from a thunderstorm cloud and started on a southeasterly track at 35 mph. The towns Of Barre and Rutland lay immediately in the path. Two people died in each of those communities. Gaining in intensity as it clocked along, the tornado attained an F4 rating as it roared into Holden. Nine people perished there.
Just after 5 p.m., the tornado grew to an amazing width of one mile and set its sights on the highly populated city of Worcester. The tornado crossed the northeastern part of the city as it rushed southeastward. The tornado had now attained the highest ranking attributed to such storms and it was leaving a trail of F5 devastation in its path. Sixty people perished in Worcester. Shrewsbury was next, and twelve people died there. Six people died in Westborough and three in Southborough before the horrific cloud lifted. In Boston, forty miles from Worcester, a photograph of a pretty girl wafted to earth, borne all the way there on the tornado’s winds. A copy of the Worcester Telegram fell with other debris in Boston. A total of 84 people died during the 84 minutes it was carving its 46 mile path of destruction.
