Massachusetts
Shocker: This New England State Gets the Most Lightning in the Region
Summertime and the living is easy. The weather can be rough, especially if you don’t like heat and humidity – and then there are the summer thunderstorms.
All of it beats winter cold and snow, as far as I am concerned.
New Bedford has the record for the hottest temperature recorded in Massachusetts, when it hit 107 degrees on August 2, 1975. I remember how my friends and I cruised Acushnet Avenue in a 1967 Mustang convertible. My friends Bob and Debbie were married that day.
Hot and humid weather can lead to unstable air and thunderstorms.
Earth Networks stated that “Massachusetts typically experiences 10-30 thunderstorms per year, with most activity occurring in the summer.”
“In 2020, Massachusetts ranked 38th in the country for total lightning pulses, which is the combination of cloud-to-ground (CG) and in-cloud (IC) lightning strikes,” Earth Networks reported.
Lightning is most common in the United States in June, July and August when more than 60 percent of the year’s lightning occurs.
June is the most active month for lightning in Massachusetts, followed by August and July. Those are also the months when the most dangerous thunderstorm alerts are issued.
Of the 14 counties in Massachusetts, Bristol County ranked 10th in 2020 for total lightning pulses experienced. Worcester County had the most, followed by Middlesex County. Nantucket County had the least. Plymouth County ranked seventh.
Texas recorded the most lightning pulses in 2020, 63,683,799, followed by Florida with 35,430,198.
Massachusetts was 38th with 1,267,046, the most lightning pulses of the six New England states, followed by Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. Rhode Island was 48th with 190,992.
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Massachusetts
Local animal rescue fined for violating adoption laws in Massachusetts
CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — Local animal rescue Rural Texas Animal No Kill (TANK) Rescue has been fined $4,500 by the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture Resources.
An investigation by KRIS 6 News found Rural TANK and owner Kayla Denney has been violating the Animal Welfare Act. First-hand accounts were found of dogs and cats shipped across country crammed in crates sometimes without food or water. Sometimes adopters wouldn’t receive their pets after paying and in some cases, the animals arrive sick and die soon after.
In June 2021 the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture Resources launched an investigation and issued a cease and desist to Rural TANK Rescue. They found the animal rescue had shipped a transport of dogs that all had Parvovirus.
MDAR said the fine is for violating the cease and desist and continuing to operate as an unlicensed rescue. The fine cites recent incidents of importing dogs with falsified health certificates, adopting dogs with behavioral issues and adopting a dog that died 16 hours after arrival.
Not only that, but Rural Tank lost it’s non-profit status in 2022 for failing to file any documents with the IRS.
Rural TANK has been known to operate out of San Patricio County since 2019.
If adopting in Massachusetts, MDAR encourages adopters to check if the organization you’re adopting from is licensed.
However in Texas, there is no licensing process with the state for animal rescues and shelters. So, be sure to do your homework before adopting anywhere.
For the latest local news updates, click here, or download the KRIS 6 News App.
Massachusetts
Measles case confirmed in Massachusetts for first time since 2020
BOSTON – Massachusetts health officials said a person from Worcester County has been diagnosed with the first confirmed case of measles in the state since 2020.
The Department of Public Health said the person, who is an adult, recently traveled internationally.
Measles outbreaks in Europe
There are currently large measles outbreaks happening in Europe and elsewhere globally.
When the person returned to Massachusetts, the person was diagnosed with measles in early July 2024.
The last measles case in the state was early 2020.
Health officials said people who may have been exposed to measles from this case were contacted and provided with health recommendations.
The DPH said many of the cases in the United States have been connected to recent travel. There was an alert in June about an international visitor who traveled through Boston to Amsterdam while they were infectious.
How many cases of measles are there in the United States?
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that as of July 11 there have been a total of 167 measles cases in 2024 around the country. A total of 84% of those cases were in unvaccinated patients or people with an unknown vaccination status.
“Measles is a highly contagious, airborne disease, which has increased worldwide, including here in the United States and in neighboring states in New England,” Massachusetts Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein said in a statement. “Cases of measles have been reported in 30 states since the beginning of last year, mostly in people and communities who are unvaccinated. Vaccination is the best way to protect against measles.”
Anyone who does not know their measles immunization status is asked to contact their doctor to get vaccinated.
Massachusetts
A rare bird has been spotted in Massachusetts. Here’s where birders are seeing it
The summer tourist season for Massachusetts is in full swing, drawing in visitors of all shapes and sizes, not to mention species.
An American Flamingo, associated with decidedly warmer climes than Massachusetts, made a number of bird watchers very happy, and a blue whale literally made a splash off the coast of Gloucester.
Though there have been no more unusual whale sightings since then, user-reported bird watching database Ebird exploded once again on Monday with sightings of a Brown Booby in South Boston.
For non-birders, a Brown Booby is a tropical bird. The fact that it’s common in the Carribean should give most people an idea of why it would be so surprising to find it in New England.
How long has it been here?
The first report of the Brown Booby on ebird was posted Saturday, July 13 a little after 9 a.m., by user Dan O’Brien, but the actual first sighting is credited to one Laura Markley the day before in a number of notes. Meaning the animal has been in the area for at least six days now.
O’Brien wrote that the bird was perched at the end of the wooden piling when he arrived, right as it began to rain. “When the rain started to let up it joined the feeding frenzy of gulls and terns. Saw it plunge diving a few times!” he said in the details section.
Plunge diving is a distinctive behavior used by a number of fishing bird species, diving from the air to the water for fish. Unlike other fishing birds, brown boobys perform relatively shallow dives of about two meters. They are also known to steal food from other birds, known as klepto-parasitism.
O’Brien speculated that the steady southern winds over the last week, and especially Wednesday through Friday, may have brought a few southern birds north, explaining why the bird was so far out of its normal territory.
Where is the brown booby usually seen?
This species breeds on islands and coasts in the pantropical (tropics in the eastern and western hemispheres) areas of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, often on islands in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. They can also be seen on islands in the Pacific and Indian ocean and even the northern coast of Australia. A wide range but all having one thing in common – south.
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