Cape Cod: No Tornadoes since 1977, Then Five within a Year

Cape Cod, Massachusetts is known for its raging winter blizzards and windstorms. By summer, we become a popular summer destination for vacationers, our population more than doubling overnight.

Cape Cod isn't known for its tornado activity. In fact, there were no officially-listed tornadoes between 1977 and 2018. Then half a dozen spun up over Barnstable County within a year. None were "typical" tornado environments, and present unique forecasting and predictive challenges that New England meteorologists have learned to recognize in advance.

I examine the mesoscale environment that supported each tornado, the climatology of such events, and introduce realtime radar data to review signatures that effectively provided advanced warning during each event. I also present evidence for multiple missed events, when unusual setups produced potential tornadic touchdowns that, due to their bizarre circumstances, may have been overlooked or ruled out.