Tornado touched down in Holden and Paxton, Massachusetts on Saturday, National Weather Service confirms
An EF1 tornado touched down twice in Paxton and Holden, Massachusetts on Saturday, a team of field inspectors from the National Weather Service confirmed Monday after surveying damage in the area.
The tornado touched down at 4:07 p.m. Saturday as severe thunderstorms spread across Massachusetts. No injuries were reported.
"NWS Boston meteorologists conducting a storm survey have determined that a brief EF1 tornado occurred in Paxton MA with a second brief touchdown in Holden MA also determined to be EF1," the National Weather Service said in a statement.
EF1 tornadoes have winds in the range of 86 mph to 110 mph, and it's believed this tornado was on the lower end of the range. This is the first tornado confirmed in New England in 2025.
Several large trees in yards along South Road in Holden were pulled out of the ground by the twister. Some of them were hundreds of years old.
"It'll change the landscape forever here," said homeowner Janna Goodnow. "It's like a movie scene, you don't expect to see trees uprooted like that."
Parts of Worcester and Middlesex counties were under a tornado warning for nearly an hour Saturday afternoon. According to WBZ-TV meteorologists, it appeared that the tornado was only on the ground in Holden for a short period of time before lifting.
Holden is in Worcester County, 55 miles west of Boston. The National Weather Service team will also survey storm damage in Berlin, Massachusetts, which is about 16 miles east of Holden, and the Berkshires in western Massachusetts.
The survey team looked at damage in Otis and Blandford in western Massachusetts and did not see any evidence of a tornado there.