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Weather service: No tornado in central Mass.

E-mail|Link|Comments () July 20, 2010 03:26 PM

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By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

The National Weather Service says that air masses were rotating and funnel clouds were observed, but no tornado appears to have touched ground in Worcester County during Monday's storms.

A weather service team today surveyed the town of Ashburnham and areas in nearby Westminster and Gardner.

"Very little in the way of damage was evident from the storms that moved through that area yesterday and the conclusion is that no tornado reached the ground," the service said in a statement on its website.

That said, the service noted, the radar showed "one of the strongest rotational signatures … located not very far above the ground."

It also said funnel clouds had been observed by two trained weather spotters in Lancaster and Clinton.

"This had the potential to have been a significant tornado had it not remained aloft," the service said. But it said, "In this case there was no evidence that the rotation ever made its way down to the surface."

Two tornado warnings were issued last night based on radar observations. One covered Gardner, Ashburnham, Fitchburg, and Leominster. A second covered Leominster, Clinton, Sterling, Lancaster, and Princeton.

Last night's storms carried severe winds, heavy rains, and lightning tore through central Massachusetts Monday night, causing fires and flooding, the Globe reports this morning.