Scituate, MA F1 Tornado of September 16, 1986

Plymouth County


Figure 1 depicts the surface observations at 8:00 am EDT, which shows a cold front off the northeast coast of the United States. This front moved across Massachusetts in the early morning hours of September 16th, which ultimately led to this tornado.

Figure 1. Surface weather map for September 16, 1986 at 8:00 am EDT (NOAA, 2020).

The Scituate, MA F1 tornado of September 16, 1986 impacted Plymouth County in Massachusetts. According to NOAA (2019), the F1 tornado caused no fatalities or injuries, but caused $250 thousand dollars in property damage. The tornado touched down near Porter Road at 5:35 am EDT. The tornado travelled for 0.1 mile and had a maximum width of 50 yards.

Figure 2. This narrative was extracted from the historical 08/1986 Storm Data Publication. Please refer to the Database Details page for more information or the NCEI Image and Publication System for access to all NCEI publications (NOAA NCEI, 2020).

Sources

NOAA Central Library. (2020). U.S. Daily Weather Maps. Tuesday September 16, 1986 [PDF]. Retrieved from https://library.noaa.gov/Collections/Digital-Collections/US-Daily-Weather-Maps

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (2020). Storm Events Database. Retrieved from: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/