Massachusetts averages three tornadoes per year and the same amount of violent tornadoes per 10,000 miles as Texas, Missouri and Tennessee.
While seemingly unprecedented, the tornadoes that swept through downtown Springfield and other areas and the storms that followed aren't necessarily new to Western Massachusetts.
As the Washington Post points out, the Springfield tornadoes were similar to the recent funnel clouds that touched down and devastated Joplin, Missouri and Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the fact that they went against the assumption that these storms typically avoid urban areas.
The Post uses a map of the United States, courtesy of the National Climatic Data Center, to show the occurrence of tornadoes on a yearly basis in each state. From 1953-2004, Massachusetts averaged three tornadoes per year.
Most of the 152 tornadoes reported in the state during that time period were weak in force, remaining at the F0 and F1 ratings on the Fujita Scale, which is used to to rate the intensity of a tornado based on the damage to human built structures and vegetation.
That said, the Washington Post looked at the database made public by the Tornado History Project to reveal that many tornadoes hit the state of the devastating F2, F3 and F4 varieties.
The National Climatic Data Center notes that Massachusetts is home to 1.1 'strong to violent' or F2-F5 tornado each year.
While the one violent tornado averaged per year doesn't seem like an alarming number, per capita, Massachusetts endures the same amount violent tornadoes per 10,000 square miles as Texas, Missouri and Tennessee.
Three violent storms stick out in the annals of tornado-watching in the region.
In 1953, 94 people were killed and more than 1,000 hurt in the Worcester area when an F4 storm hit, causing $52 million in damage (valued at $349 million today).
In 1995, three people died in a storm that devastated Berkshire County.
And in 1979, an F4 twister struck Windsor, Windsor Locks and Suffield, Conn. and was rated as an F4 tornado. Three deaths, 500 injuries and more than $400 million in property damage were reported.
The exact rating of yesterday's storms aren't known at this time. A team of National Weather Service meteorologists will assess the damage Thursday.