Revisiting the Tornado of June 14, 1877

139 years ago today, a tornado swept through the Pioneer Valley, damaging much of Northampton and destroying the covered bridge which crossed the Connecticut River to Hadley. Eleven people and six teams of horses (or was it 15 people and 10 teams of horses?) went down with the bridge. Read all about it here, in a prior Head in the Clouds Amherst post from 2013....

Pioneer Valley Weather History: The Tornado of 1877

Sundown over the Valley

Tonight's sunset was brief but spectacular. Here's one view, sent to us by friend of Head in the Clouds Amherst, Joshua Wolfsun. Wow!

Sundown in the Valley - Hadley, MA, 6/13/2016
Photo by Joshua Wolfsun

Noctilucent Cloud Season Starts Today (to our north)

Noctilucent clouds over Hoogeveen, the Netherlands, by A.J. Hidding
(originally posted by The Cloud Appreciation Society)

June 1st is not only the start of hurricane season, but it is also the start of Noctilucent Cloud Season in the Northern Hemisphere. Meaning ‘night-shining’ in Latin, noctilucent clouds are only visible after dark, when they shine out against the night sky as eerie, bluish ripples. They are visible primarily in the higher latitudes, between 50˚ and 70˚ from the equator. Although this is north of Amherst (and the entire U.S. for that matter), look for them if you are vacationing this summer in Canada or other northern climes (U.K, Europe, China, Mongolia, etc.).

At altitudes of around 50 miles, these are by far the highest clouds in the sky, forming in a very cold and dry region of our atmosphere, the mesosphere. Being so high up, they still catch the light long after the sun has dipped below the horizon and the lower atmosphere is in shadow. Look for these clouds during summer in the hours after sunset and before sunrise, when the lower sky is clear.