Massachusetts isn't really the sort of place you would expect to have strong tornadoes, but around 7pm on Memorial Day of 1995 an F3-F4 tornado tore through Great Barrington, MA, flattening the Fairgrounds, killing 3 people, and injuring 12.
This tornado spurned , and other strong tornadoes in New England, have inspired research into the relationship between tornadogenesis and local topography, which seems to indicate that conditions are pretty good for tornadoes terrain. Meteorologists found that the north-south orientation of the Hudson and Housatonic valleys, which Great Barrington is in between, increase lower level wind shear when the surface wind is southerly. This increases the likelihood of tornadoes forming in a local "Hot Spot" extending from the mid- Hudson valley, NY to Berkshire County, Massachusetts MA and Litchfield County, ConnecticutCT. (Local Tornado Hot Spot)
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