Beautifully Bright

Now that the dust has settled after the tornado in Concord and the driving rains of last night, it's time to take stock.

What caused that spin-up along a rather innocent-looking cool front? Well, in New England we typically get these compact tornados to form in somewhat stocky thunderstorms - or in this case - downpours. That's right, we had a tornado in a tiny "storm" imbedded in rain. Tricky, eh? Why not a lot of lightning? Because lightning needs tall storms with ice at the very top to create the electrical potential. Without it, you're hard pressed to get enough static charge.

The tornado touched down around 3:20am near the Cambridge Turnpike. It was on the ground for 10 minutes with a width of 400 yards and a path of about 1/2 a mile. Lots of trees down in its wake, with about 39 homes damaged.

Turning the page to sunshine now...plenty of it in the days ahead. But look out for some cool mornings too. Temperatures will dip to the 40s in the suburbs and across Northern New England (come on, you felt the chill in that wind today, didn't you?) to the 50s in the big cities. Before you count summer out, look ahead to the middle of the week when the wind switches back to the southwest and the 80s return in earnest. Only threat for showers/storms seems to be on Friday as a weak front approaches.

Long range, I speculate that all eyes will be on the tropics as 2 tropical systems - and another in the making - make moves late this week and next weekend. There's reason to be concerned along the Eastern Seaboard as a the steering winds are primed for a close approach with one of these storms. We'll keep you posted.

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