Battening down the hatches (when you aren't in a boat)

Summer Storm over Hadley
Photo by Sharon Vardatira

The powerful cold front responsible for the major severe weather outbreak that devastated parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and Illinois (among other areas) overnight will sweep through Southern New England later this afternoon through Sunday morning. While we won’t see anywhere near that level of severity here, the front will bring the potential for strong to damaging winds, heavy rain, and thunderstorms. A Wind Advisory is now in effect from 1 PM this afternoon until 5 AM Sunday morning for our area and much of Southern New England. We are forecasted to get 25-35 MPH winds with gusts to 50 MPH (and some isolated higher gusts possible). These winds could cause isolated to scattered pockets of tree and wire damage and power outages.

I don’t know about you, but when I first heard thunder earlier this morning I leaped into action, battening down the metaphorical hatches (washing dishes, tending to laundry, bringing mail inside, and moving lighter objects off the porch). Bringing in the mail may have been most critical – I could do a collage of weather-related mailbox devastation over the years. 

Mailbox microburst takedown (past storm)
Photo by Sharon Vardatira

By the way, one of the tornadoes that struck overnight may have set the record for the longest continuous tornado in American recorded history – the path is still to be confirmed, but it appears to have stretched some 250 miles. The stories and first-person accounts coming out this morning are harrowing – our hearts go out to everyone whose lives have been so tragically upended.