Hello to all...

The following is the Severe Weather Outbreak Report from August 9th/10th,
2000. ARES and SKYWARN Newsletters will follow tomorrow as well as many
outstanding replies to emails over the past week.

The Severe Weather Outbreak Report is listed below:

Severe Weather Outbreak Report from Wednesday Night August 9th
and Thursday Morning August 10th, 2000
by: Robert Macedo, ARES SKYWARN Coordinator for NWS Taunton

...Severe Weather During Wednesday Night August 9th Gives Way
to a Long Lived Dangerous Nocturnal Supercell on Thursday Morning August
10th...

A very unique severe weather event occurred during Wednesday Night August 9th
and Thursday Morning August 10th. A nocturnal severe weather event, the
most dangerous type of severe weather event due to the lack of public
awareness of nocturnal severe weather in Southern New England, would take
shape across portions of Southern New England.

It was a hot and muggy week across Southern New England. There had been
a couple of Slight risk outlooks for severe weather forecasted by the
Storm Prediction Center earlier in the week but no severe weather occurred.
On Wednesday Night and Thursday Morning, a cold front was expected to make
its way through Southern New England. The timing of the front was going to
be during the evening and morning hours of Wednesday Night and Thursday
Morning.

Typically, this time of day is not conducive to Severe Weather in New
England but the jet dynamics associated with this cold front would offset
the loss of daytime heating and result in a dangerous nocturnal Supercell
as the night wore on.

Initially, the severe weather threat time was from 7 PM-Midnight and then a
new
Special Weather Statement issued by NWS Taunton stated that the severe weather
threat for Southern New England would be anytime between 1 AM-5 AM across the
region.

The SKYWARN paging network kept spotters and coordinators posted throughout
the
night on the severe weather threat. A Severe Thunderstorm Watch was posted
until 1 AM for much of New York and Berkshire County Mass. and Litchfield
County CT. Ops at NWS Taunton were started at 7:30 PM as I went to the NWS
office at Taunton's request.

Severe Thunderstorms erupted across New York State with Golf Ball Sized
Hail and wind gusts over 60 MPH reported in the Bingamton area. This
weather moved into Rennselear County NY and Berkshire County Massachusetts.

A band opening alowed us to keep constant contact with this region for
upstream
reporting for NWS Taunton. The 146.91 Mount Greylock Repeater was initially
out
of reach to start the evening and N1KKY-Tom Pratt provided liaison work for
several hours during the night until the band opening allowed us direct
contact
to the 146.91 Berkshire County SKYWARN Net as the evening wore on. The
53.31, Mount Wachusett 6 Meter Repeater was utilized for some of this
liaison work in CT and Western Mass. throughout the evening.

The first cluster of Severe Thunderstorms went through Rennselear County
New York and Berkshire County Massachusetts with Severe Thunderstorm
Warnings posted. Stephenstown New York had Dime Sized Hail at 10:05 PM with
Hancock, Mass. reporting Penny Sized Hail. Don Horton, N1ISB acted as Net
Control, with KA1JJM, Ray Weber acting as liaison. Ray received the report
from Hancock, Mass.

This cluster of storms died off after heading into Western Hampshire and
Western Franklin Counties of Massachusetts. A new cluster of storms then
formed and continued eastward tracking over a similiar area of Rennselear
County New York and Berkshire County Massachusetts with Nickel Sized Hail
reported again Stephenstown New York at 11:55 PM with wires down on
Highland Avenue in Pittsfield Massachusetts.

At this point, no severe weather had really reached the County Warning Area
of NWS Taunton. Most of the first part of the evening was spent getting
upstream reports in the counties just to the west of NWS Taunton's area and
forwarding those reports to NWS Albany NY. At this point, I was reluctant
to take any chances in case the 'full potential' of this severe weather
situation was realized. Therefore, I requested that Mike Leger, N1YLQ, join
me at NWS Taunton. He did not have to work until later in the evening on
Thursday and if things got very heated, his assistance may be needed to
help out with ham operations at the weather office. The prime risk time for
severe weather had not been reached yet and one of the largest
thunderstorms of the year was taking shape in Southeast New York with its
eyes set on Northern CT, Northern RI, and Southeast Massachusetts.

A large thunderstorm, known as a supercell, took shape in Dutchess County
New York. The storm went into Litchfield County Connecticut and weakened
slightly. It then moved into Hartford County and then intensified slightly.
It was near the threshold for a Severe Thunderstorm Warning and the Warning
was issued for Eastern Hartford and Tolland Counties in Connecticut. Right
after the Warning was issued the storm intensified further. On the next
scan of the radar the storm became an intense supercell.

The 147.000 Soapstone Mountain CT SKYWARN Net was active thanks to the
efforts of K1PZS, Harvey Broverman and KD1LD, Jim McBride. A spotter in
Tolland CT went through a part of the storm and reported winds estimated
40-50 MPH and that an umbrella and lawn furniture were blown into his pool.
Following that, numerous reports of hail up to Golf Ball Sized were
received in Tolland and Ellington CT. On the next scan of the radar,
tremendous rotation was seen and a Tornado Warning was posted for Eastern
Windham and Providence Counties in RI.

Pages went out to coordinators in RI to immediately activate SKYWARN in
Rhode Island. The storm was extremely dangerous at this point in time. The
radar showed that the storm was capable of hail 3.25" in diameter as well
as a tornado. KB1CMD-Joe Farrington and N1EGS-John Buco were on the air
within 10 minutes of the Tornado Warning issuance on the 146.76 Scituate,
RI Repeater. Several minutes after that, N1XRS-Tony who was monitoring the
frequency phoned Martin Mendelson, N1JMA, Rhode Island ARES SEC who was up
and monitoring the situation and he jumped on the 146.76 Scituate, RI
Repeater.

There have been other severe weather events that I have been involved with
and worked on but for the first time since I've done SKYWARN, I was a bit
scared by this situation. A tornadic weather situation is rare in New
England to begin with and having this situation during the middle of the
night when people were sleeping was a huge concern. Would people hear the
warning after it was issued? If a tornado occurred, would there be loss of
life due to the lack of weather radio alert receivers by the public?

Mike, N1YLQ, assisted with giving me pertinent radar information and
forecaster thinking as I directed where reports were needed through the
duration of the supercell. In Smithfield RI, wind gusts were estimated at
60 MPH with trees, branches and leaves reported down on Logee Street along
with multiple wires down as well all in Woonsocket, RI trees and wires
reported down in Smithfield RI at 3:37 AM.

John, N1EGS, headed up to the Foster and Gloucester RI area to look for
damage already done. Mike, N1YLQ stated to me that the storm was moving
east at 60-70 Knots at this point and that no one could chase to catch up
to it. The storm was also dangerous being at night that no chasers were
used to 'core punch' the storm, all mobile hams that came on the frequency
were used to find damage already done by this very dangerous storm. John
found trees down across
the Route 100/102 intersection closing the road. With numerous large trees
reported down on Route 44 West and also on Route 100 towards Burrillville,
RI. Also, along the side of Route 102, there was Golf Ball Sized Hail in
Foster RI that accumilated along the side of the road. Quarter Sized Hail
was also reported in Burrillville, RI later in the day. Further reports of
poles and 4-5" diameter trees down were reported in Smithfield, RI with
high tension wires down in Lincoln, RI. Golf Ball Sized Hail was also
reported in Smithfield, Cumberland and Lincoln, RI. Route 116 in
Smithfield, RI also had 10-12" diameter trees down. In Cumberland, RI, Rick
Tellier, SKYWARN Spoter # 00-86, took a picture of several hailstones with
a ruler measuring some of the hailstones on a blue mat. Some of the hail
stones were near or slightly over 2" in diameter.

An after action storm report from Ralph Nahigian, KE1GL, revealed that over
12 roads were closed in Smithfield, RI and that there was one injury to a
police officer as a tree fell on to his car destroying the vehicle. Ralph
is a ham operator and works for the Smithfield, RI Fire Department.

With this being at night, there was no way to know whether the damage was
done by straight-line winds or a tornado, and because of this tornado
warnings were issued along the path of this extremely dangerous storm. The
storm was now moving into Northern Bristol County Massachusetts. The storm
was headed right for the NWS Taunton Forecast Office and for the first time
ever since I've operated at NWS Taunton, the forecasters ordered that the
ops floor be cleared of all personnel in case the storm had a tornado pass
over the forecast office. Strong winds estimated up to 60 MPH buffered the
weather office as we headed for the interior area of the building. The ops
floor was cleared for about 5 minutes. Winds made whole trees go in motion.
No hail fell at the NWS Forecast Office.

Just to the north of NWS Taunton in Norton, Massachusetts, Ed Capone,
N1LTP, employee for the co-located Northeast River Forecast Center and ham
operator reported Golf Ball Sized Hail at his house and stated that the
storm produced hail at the start of the storm which is very unusual. At
this time, we were monitoring the 146.76 Scituate RI and 147.18
Bridgewater, Mass. Repeaters, along with brief monitoring of the 146.895
Walpole Repeater where Norfolk County SKYWARN was active.

W1JOE, Joe from the Brockton area along with Ray, N1KXJ who was coming home
from work were in the storm and prepared to go out to within the Brockton,
Bridgewater area to look for wind damage. Numerous reports of trees down
came in across West Bridgewater and Brockton Massachusetts. N1WAI, Ted
McCaw reported Golf Ball Sized Hail in Easton, Massachusetts. Carl, N1FYZ,
founded further wind damage in the Brockton and Whitman area with power out
across much of the city of Brockton. N1EDM, Bob reported power outages
across portions of Whitman as the aerial extent of the power outages was
determined.

Several area hospitals were under emergency power after the supercell had
passed. Mike Leger, N1YLQ, took the bulk of these reports as I worked to
assist the forecasters in putting the reports into Local Storm Reports that
needed to be issued by NWS Taunton.

The Supercell continued to move east to the Plymouth area where large
branches and wires were reported down per KA1VAX, Betsy Sproles and finally
moved off the coast of Massachusetts.

Inspite of the widespread pockets of wind damage across the path of the
supercell and from spotter reports what appeared to be a 50 mile long, 2-5
mile wide path of Golf Ball Sized Hail, no damage linked to a tornado could
be found. Numerous cars had dents from the hail along the path of this
supercell, including cars in Ellington, CT, Lincoln, RI, Cumberland RI,
Norton and Easton, Massachusetts. Several damage surveys were done in Rhode
Island and Southeast Massachusetts. One damage survey was done by NWS
Taunton Meteorologists in Rhode Island with other damage surveys done by
amateur radio operators in the Brockton, West Bridgewater, Massachusetts
area, the Walpole Massachusetts area and the Foster-Gloucester-Burrillville
Rhode Island area. Damage in all areas were produced by microburst type
activity in pockets but in pockets covering the entire path of the
supercell. The damage survey in the Brockton/West
Bridgewater area was completed by Carl, N1FYZ. The damage survey of the
Foster-Gloucester-Burillville, RI area was done by John Buco, N1EGS. Wind
damage found by Roger Turner-W1ZSA in Walpole was not detected until a
couple days after the event with numerous trees and large branches down.
One large trunk of tree was taken down and destroyed a garage at a resident
on 277 Pleasant Street. Much of this damage occurred between 2:30 and 4:15
AM across this entire region. A HEARTY thank you for the sincere dedication
of these hams to do these surveys a few days after the storm passed.

More thunderstorms formed across South Coastal Massachustts and some were
severe. Hail fell at ML Baron, KA1WBH's location. The hail was reported as
around pea sized and then a view of the videotape provided by ML Baron
showed some hail of Dime to Nickel sized that occurred with the storm. No
strong winds occurred. The hail occurred between 5:25 and 5:35 AM. Also ML
received major lightning damage to his location damaging computers and some
radio equipment.

On Martha's Vineyard, a Severe Thunderstorm moved through that area with
reports of large branches and trees down in Edgartown, Massachusetts per
Jeff Baker, N1PRM and this occurred between 6:15 and 6:30 AM Thursday Morning.

The 11 hour SKYWARN Activation ended at 7 AM as the threat of severe
weather ended and myself and Mike Leger, N1YLQ, exhausted but happy that
the amateur radio network did its job well inspite of the time of day left
NWS Taunton.

A HEARTY thank you to all the spotters that phoned in reports and to all
those who checked into the SKYWARN Nets that morning and all of the
valuable reports that were received throughout the event and after the
event. All of this information will help weather forecasters continue to
grow their understanding of New England Severe Weather in a unique and rare
situation, during the late night/early morning hours. The reports also
helped to protect life and property. Special THANKS to all who supported
thie event.

A picture archive of the wind damage and hail will follow in the coming
weeks at the Eastern Massachusetts ARES/RACES/SKYWARN home page. Special
thanks to all spotters and coordinators who provided pictures of damage
from this storm.

Respectfully Submitted,

Robert Macedo (KD1CY)
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator
SEMCARES Emergency Coordinator