Waterspout/Funnel Cloud/Tornado Outbreak Across Southern New England on August 20, 1997


James E. Lee, Glenn A. Field, and Walter H. Drag
NOAA/National Weather Service Forecast Office - Boston, MA
NOAA/National Weather Service

445 Myles Standish Blvd.

Taunton, MA 02780
508-823-1983
508-823-2321
james.e.lee@noaa.gov

During the afternoon of August 20, 1997, three waterspouts, at least one confirmed F0 tornado, and numerous funnel clouds developed in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. There were no deaths, injuries, or property damage, with the exception of some torn-up trees in a small section of Plymouth, Massachusetts.

The synoptic-scale meteorological environment associated with this event were rather innocuous. The precursor environment was a cooler than normal airmass, relatively light winds throughout the low-levels, sea-surface temperatures in the mid-60s, and a very unstable lower troposphere capped by a moist inversion starting at about 700 mb. The interaction of a coastal surface boundary with the very unstable lower troposphere produced the mesoscale environment to support the event. Radar observations from both the KBOX WSR-88D and the FAA's South Weymouth, Massachusetts Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) provided little information on the phenomenon.

The prestorm synoptic and mesoscale environment will be reviewed and animated KBOX WSR-88D and South Weymouth TDWR imagery, along with photographs of the funnels, will be presented. This paper is meaningful because it documents a rare event in southern New England and it validates previous scientific literature about this type of this event.