
Torrential thunderstorms pelted Martha’s Vineyard Monday morning, bringing a deluge of rainfall, lightning, a tornado warning and a possible funnel cloud off Aquinnah.
After two brush fires scorched acres of land in Oak Bluffs and West Tisbury this week, state and local fire officials are on particularly high alert.
In one of the hottest, driest summers in recent memory, critical drought conditions were declared late Thursday for all seven regions in the state, including Martha’s Vineyard.
The towns of West Tisbury, Chilmark and Aquinnah are opening a single cooling shelter at the West Tisbury Library today and tomorrow.
The first full day of the Memorial Day weekend was a washout on the Vineyard, with buckets of rain flooding roads and turning streams into mini rushing rivers. The National Weather Service reported 3.37 inches of rainfall in Edgartown. A backyard weather station in West Tisbury reported four inches.
This has been one of the coldest and rainiest springs in recent memory in the Northeast. Now forecasters say get ready for an active hurricane season.