We had quite the weather event, or should we say "events", last week. Hurricane Arthur marched his way up the coast and all eyes were on the Carolinas, Cape Cod and the Islands. That, combined with a cold front July 3rd and 4th, we had all the makings for a severe weather outbreak.
All week our page admins and managers worked overtime keeping up with all the weather updates and reports coming in, but the real test were the line of storms building the evening of July 3rd.
At roughly 9pm, a storm cell that moved through the Northampton, Hatfield, Whately, South Deerfield, and Sunderland area, brought winds of 60+ mph, bringing down trees, utility poles, and electrical wires. Reports of lightning-strike structure fires, trees on homes and cars, road closures, and isolated power outages were reported.
The incidents came in so fast they had to be stacked and prioritized for responding emergency personnel. As soon as an incident was under control and the crew cleared the scene, they were dispatched to the next in queue.
TEAM360° was hard at work coordinating posts and updating the chaos, and, while two of those team members lost power, they were still able to report incidents throughout the area.
After the skies cleared and Hurricane Arthur moved off to the Northeast, later we learned a microburst was responsible for much of the damage.
We took a drive to survey some of the damage and it was evident that a microburst took place. Flattened fields and snapped trees, were seen all over the area. We included some of those photos below, as well as a quick drive-through video of Long Plain Rd in Whately.
Epic job by all the first responders and emergency crews who worked the storm and a stellar job to the managers and admins keeping our folks in the field and at home informed!
Related:
- NWS Confirms Microburst in Whately - WGGB.com
- The Differences Between Microbursts and Tornadoes - Dave Hayes The Weather Nut
- July 3rd, 2014 - Severe Weather Outbreak and Hurricane Arthur Post Storm Information - SKYWARN
- July 3rd, 2014 - Severe Weather Outbreak Damage Photos - SKYWARN
- Violent storm damage caught on security camera - WCVB.com
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