Woburn Area Nears 100th Anniversary Of Deadly Tornado: NWS

WOBURN, MA — Woburn marked the 97th anniversary on Tuesday of a deadly tornado that ripped through town in October of 1925, as noted by the National Weather Service’s Boston office.

The agency shared a brief history of the event, which it said likely stemmed from a warm front in the northeast on the afternoon of Oct. 25, 1925.

The tornado “skipped east across Woburn,” according to weather officials, damaging at least 75 buildings. One man died when he was hit by falling chimney bricks, the weather service said.

In addition to the storm-related fatality, at least one person was injured when the falling steeple of Woburn’s Unitarian Church crushed a car, according to a Boston Globe report at the time. Media reports shared various figures for additional injuries.

The Globe reported police on guard around toppled gas pumps to stave off fires as National Guard troops patrolled the city to prevent looting.

The same storm may have caused wind damage in Winchester, according to the Globe.

It separately reawakened scars of an earlier storm that hit Medford in 1851.

“One tornado in three-quarters of a century is quite enough for old New England,” the Globe said.

The storm in 1925 drew national media attention, earning coverage in the Asbury Park Evening Press in New Jersey, the Medford Mail Tribune in Oregon and the Elmira Star-Gazette in New York among other publications.

While rare in Massachusetts, tornados have hit the state over the years. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Storm Events Database noted 190 tornados in Massachusetts dating back to 1950 as of Tuesday.

Though the majority of tornados have been low intensity spin-ups with no deaths and few injuries, some storms, including tornados in the Worcester, Berkshire County and Springfield areas have been more severe.

A 1953 tornado in Worcester killed 90 people, injuring more than 1,200 and causing roughly $250 million in damages.

The 1973 Great Barrington Tornado in Berkshire County killed four and injured 36, with $25 million in damages.

The 2011 Springfield Tornado killed three and injured 200 others, according to NOAA, causing $227.6 million in damages in Springfield and surrounding communities.

Massachusetts saw six tornados last year, though none exceeded EF0 intensity, which caps at 72 mile-per-hour wind speeds.