The Great Barrington Tornado of 1995: An F4 on Memorial Day
Farmers’ Almanac remembers the Great Barrington Tornado of 1995!
Quick Reference
- When: Memorial Day, Monday, May 29, 1995. Touchdown at 7:06 p.m.
- Where: Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Berkshire County. F4 strength.
- Path: 11.5 miles, 18 minutes on the ground. Max width 300 yards.
- Winds: estimated 207 to 260 mph at peak.
- Toll: 3 deaths (Eagleton School students and staff), 24 injuries, $25 million in damage.
- Why it stands out: one of the strongest tornadoes ever recorded in New England, on a holiday weekend most readers think of as the start of summer.
Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer for most of the country: parades, cookouts, the first pool parties, the first beach trips. On Memorial Day 1995, the weather flipped that script for one Berkshire town. At 7:06 p.m. on May 29, 1995, a violent F4 tornado touched down near Walter J. Koladza Airport in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Eighteen minutes later it had carved an 11.5-mile path through the southern Berkshires, killed three people, injured 24, and left $25 million of damage in 1995 dollars. It is still one of the strongest tornadoes ever recorded in New England.
How the Storm Formed
The storm system started life as scattered thunderstorms over the Western Catskill Mountains in New York around 3:30 p.m. that afternoon. Those storms moved east across the Hudson River Valley, slowly organizing as they went. By late afternoon a supercell had formed, the rotating-thunderstorm structure that produces most major tornadoes.
The first tornado out of the system was a small F1 that touched down in Columbia County, New York at 6:40 p.m. Twenty-six minutes later the same supercell had crossed the Massachusetts state line and dropped a much larger F4 tornado near Walter J. Koladza Airport on the south edge of Great Barrington. Tornadoes of that intensity are rare anywhere east of the Mississippi. They are exceptional in New England, where complex terrain and shallow boundary layers usually break up the rotation before a tornado of that strength can develop. A 2006 paper in Weather and Forecasting studied the storm specifically because the Great Barrington tornado defied the standard atmospheric assumptions for the region.
The Path Through Town
The tornado moved northeast at roughly 35 mph. Over the next 18 minutes it tracked through the south side of Great Barrington, stayed on the ground past the town center, and continued into the neighboring town of Monterey before lifting back into the cloud base. Its full path was 11.5 miles. Maximum width was about 300 yards, more than the length of three football fields side by side.
Damage along the path was severe. More than 100 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed. The grandstand at the Great Barrington Fairgrounds was flattened. Trees were stripped of bark and snapped at the trunk along most of the track. Road signs, vehicles, and small outbuildings were carried hundreds of feet from where they had stood.
The Eagleton School Tragedy
The three lives lost in the storm were two students and a staff member from Eagleton School, a private boarding school in Great Barrington. Their car was caught directly in the tornado’s path. Investigators later determined the car had been lifted approximately 300 feet into the air, then thrown hundreds of feet into the woods off the road. The three were the only fatalities from the storm.
Eagleton School later built a small memorial chapel in the woods near where the car came to rest. Students built it with their own hands, using trees the tornado had felled. The chapel served the school community until Eagleton closed in 2016. It still stands today as Memorial Chapel A.T. Great Barrington and is now a rest stop on the Appalachian Trail.
Why an F4 in New England Was So Unusual
F4 tornadoes (now classified EF4 under the updated Enhanced Fujita scale) carry winds of 207 mph or more. They are the second-strongest category on the scale and account for about one percent of all tornadoes nationally. In New England, they are rarer still. The Great Barrington tornado is one of only a handful of F4 events in the region’s recorded history. The 1953 Worcester tornado, an F4 that killed 94 people, is the most cited comparison. Most New England tornadoes top out at F1 or F2.
The setup that produced the 1995 storm came together in a way New England weather rarely allows. A strong upper-level disturbance, an unstable warm sector pushing up the Hudson Valley, and the topography of the Berkshires combined to channel the supercell across exactly the kind of terrain New England forecasters do not expect violent tornadoes to clear.
Memorial Day Weather, Then and Since
Memorial Day weekend is statistically among the more weather-volatile holidays on the calendar. The transition from spring to summer pushes warm humid air north against late-season cold fronts, and the result is a week historically prone to severe weather. The Great Barrington tornado is the worst Memorial Day weather event on the New England record. The Joplin, Missouri EF5 tornado of May 22, 2011 (which killed 158 people) and the Memorial Day floods of 2015 in central Texas are the worst nationally in recent memory.
The Farmers’ Almanac long-range forecast covers Memorial Day weekend each year as part of the spring forecast pillar. For the broader pattern of how seasonal weather behaves around the holiday, see our when is Memorial Day guide and the long-range weather forecast for the current year.
What the Great Barrington Tornado Changed
The 1995 storm pushed the National Weather Service Albany office, the Storm Prediction Center, and northeast emergency-management agencies to revisit their assumptions about tornado risk in the Berkshires and the Hudson Valley. After 1995, severe-weather watches and warnings in the region included more language about complex-terrain tornado potential. School and public-event safety plans across western Massachusetts adopted explicit tornado-shelter procedures, which had not been standard in many small towns.
The other lasting effect is on memory. Thirty years on, residents of Great Barrington still mark the anniversary every Memorial Day. Local papers run remembrance pieces. The chapel in the woods still stands. The grandstand at the fairgrounds was rebuilt. The town remains the smallest in Massachusetts with a verified F4 in its history.
Memorial Day is for remembrance. The Great Barrington tornado of 1995 added one more chapter to remember.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did the Great Barrington tornado hit?
Memorial Day, Monday, May 29, 1995. The F4 tornado touched down at 7:06 p.m. near Walter J. Koladza Airport on the south side of Great Barrington and stayed on the ground for 18 minutes.
How strong was the Great Barrington tornado?
F4 on the original Fujita scale, with estimated peak winds of 207 to 260 mph. F4 is the second-strongest tornado classification, accounting for about one percent of all US tornadoes. The storm is one of only a handful of F4 events in New England’s recorded history.
How many people died in the Great Barrington tornado?
Three. Two students and a staff member from Eagleton School were killed when their car was caught in the tornado’s path, lifted approximately 300 feet into the air, and thrown into the woods off the road. Twenty-four other people were injured.
How long was the tornado on the ground?
Eighteen minutes. The path covered 11.5 miles from Walter J. Koladza Airport in Great Barrington through the south side of town and into Monterey, where the tornado lifted back into the cloud base. Maximum width along the path was about 300 yards.
Are tornadoes common in New England?
No. New England averages roughly 8 to 10 tornadoes a year across all six states combined, mostly F0 and F1. F4 events of the Great Barrington scale are exceptional. The 1953 Worcester tornado is the only deadlier F4 on the regional record. Modern severe-weather watches in the region include explicit complex-terrain tornado language largely because of what 1995 taught.
Is the memorial chapel still there?
Yes. The chapel was built by Eagleton School students using trees the tornado felled. It stood as a private school memorial until Eagleton closed in 2016. Today it is Memorial Chapel A.T. Great Barrington and serves as a rest stop along the Appalachian Trail.
What other Memorial Day weather events are on the record?
The Joplin, Missouri EF5 tornado of May 22, 2011 (158 deaths) and the Texas Memorial Day floods of 2015 are the worst US weather events tied to the holiday in recent memory. The Memorial Day weekend window often sees severe weather across the Plains and the Mississippi Valley as warm humid air pushes north against late-season cold fronts.
Jaime McLeod
Jaime McLeod is a longtime journalist who has written for a wide variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including MTV.com. She enjoys the outdoors, growing and eating organic food, and is interested in all aspects of natural wellness.
- Jaime McLeod
- Jaime McLeod
- Jaime McLeod
- Jaime McLeod
Some of us remember that tornado. I think the Hudson weather is supposed to be nice all weekend. I am thankful for any weather other than a tornado or flooding rain. We are also very appreciative this weekend of the men and women who served our country.
need to hear what the weather will be from day to day.and enjoy the farmers forcast.Thanks Delores